A Wizard's Slayer
by DragonKatGal
Summary: --Complete-- BTVS HP Crossover. Sequel to 'A Witch's Family'. Buffy'n'Harry. Buffy's just been Called as the Slayer, but can she handle the darkness within? --NEW: Chapters 22 - 25--
1. The Calling

A Wizard's Slayer

SETTINGS: Sequel to 'A Witch's Family', which was the sequel to 'A Murderer's Daughter'.  You really need to read those two before reading this one.

DISCLAIMER: Buffy and Harry Potter characters aren't mine.  The two Slytherin characters Keeta Seffer and Claire McNair ARE mine, and I'd appreciate if you asked before using those names.

PAIRINGS: Buffy/Harry, Willow/Tara, Draco/Ginny, Ron/Hermione.

NOTES: Why oh why do I keep doing this to myself?  This was just begging to be written, so…here it goes.  Just a warning, this one's gonna be a little bit darker than the last two.  Not sure why I feel the need to experiment a foray into the darker side of writing, so…here goes nothing I suppose.

REMINDER: This _isn't_ the start of a new year for the gang. It's halfway through Sixth-Year for the Gryffindor Gang.  Set two days before Christmas and then to the end of the school year.  

ONWARDS:

CHAPTER ONE: THE CALLING

"I uh…my name's Dominic Wood."

Buffy waited for him to say more, but he paused.  She looked at him expectantly.  "And?  What do you want with me?"

"You have to come with me," Dominic said seriously.  "You're one of the few who can stop them."

"Stop them?" Buffy asked, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu.  

"The Vampires," Dominic explained.

Buffy stood up, the swing flying wildly as she leapt to her feet.  

"This isn't funny," she said quietly, her voice dropping to a low and threatening tone.

"It's not supposed to be," he replied.  "You are the Chosen One.  Miss Riddle…you are the Slayer."

Buffy's jaw dropped.

"You're shitting me," she whispered quietly.

"I assure you Miss Riddle, I'm not," Dominic replied.  He hadn't been expecting this reaction.  He'd been expecting flat out denial of the existence of vampires.  He hadn't been prepared for her to know what he was talking about.

Buffy shook her head, her mind spinning with two many facts to comprehend properly.  Harry stepped forward and put a hand on the small of Buffy's back, calming her slightly and lending her his strength.

"But…Faith," Buffy whispered.

"You know Faith Keller?" Dominic asked, now truly confused.  He couldn't work out who this girl was that she would know what the Slayer was, as well as knowing the Slayer before her.

Buffy nodded, her world still spinning dangerously.  "She's…she's dead?" Buffy asked.

Dominic winced a little.  "Not exactly."

"Not exactly?" Buffy repeated.  "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You're aware of Faith's recent hospital stay?" he asked.

Buffy nodded.  "What about it?"

"She flat-lined during surgery.  For all intents and purposes, she was dead.  Momentarily of course.  That period of time was long enough for a second Slayer to be Called," he explained.  "The mages sensed you once when Faith was in the hospital, but you seemed to just disappear after that.  They sensed you again three days ago, Miss Riddle." 

"Summers," Buffy corrected him absently.

"Pardon?"

"My name.  It's Summers, not Riddle.  And it's Buffy, not Elizabeth," she said.

"But…you told me you were Elizabeth Riddle," Dominic said.  He hated when he wasn't in control of a conversation, and this was rapidly spinning out of his control.

Buffy nodded.  "Yeah, but I prefer to go by Buffy Summers," she said.  "It's kind of a long story."

"Oh, uh…alright.  Uh…you uh…you really do need to come with me.  We need to begin your training," he explained.

"Been there, done that.  Not a lot of fun," she replied.  

"I'm sorry?" he asked.

Buffy rolled her eyes.  Giles hadn't been kidding when he'd said that no one at the Council knew who she actually was.  She could barely think past the sentence that Dominic had uttered earlier.

_You are the Slayer._

"Look, I…I really need to think about this for a bit," she said, desperately trying to keep her breathing even.  She couldn't help but feel completely overwhelmed by what she'd been told.  It was sort of ironic.  For the last four months, all she'd wanted was her Slayer strength back, and now that she had it, she wasn't sure if she wanted it or not.

Dominic frowned.

"Miss Rid…Summers.  I don't think you quite understand-"

"I understand okay!" she yelled.  "One girl in all the world, yadda yadda yadda.  Strength and skill, blah blah blah.  I get it.  And…I just need to think," Buffy said.

Dominic was startled by Buffy's words, both by her tone, and the familiar prophecy that she'd butchered mercilessly.  He took a step towards her, but stopped when he saw the sharp look in her eyes.

The Watcher went to explain himself further, but was interrupted by a soft British voice.

"What's going on here?" Sara questioned.

Buffy looked up at her mother and sighed with relief.  There was no way a Watcher would dare to continue talking bout vampires and demons in front of her mother.  She looked at Dominique, almost challenging him with her eyes.  He stepped back and scowled.  He reached into his pocket and retrieved a business card, handing it over to her.

"You obviously know what I'm talking about Miss Summers," he said quietly.  "So you surely must understand how important it is that we speak again."

Buffy nodded absently.  "Yeah.  Sure."

"Meet me back here in two days time."

She stared at him for a long moment before nodding her agreement.  Dominic turned and walked away, leaving Harry, Sara and an incredibly exhausted Buffy.

Sara looked at her daughter and saw how incredibly pale she'd become.

"Buffy?" Sara asked gently.

Buffy looked up and Sara was startled by the look in her daughter's eyes.  There was pain, fear but also a fierce determination in them.  

"Let's go home," Buffy pleaded softly.

Sara nodded and Harry took Buffy's arm, guiding her back to Sara's car.

------------------------

Buffy was pacing.  She'd been doing it for the last hour, and still she hadn't been able to calm herself down.  

_You are the Slayer._

That was twice that she'd been told that same phrase.  But this time was the real deal.  It wasn't a spell.  It wasn't because the Ministry wanted to ensure she understood right from wrong, light from dark.  This was because she'd been _Chosen_.  She'd been Called to fight the forces of darkness.  What she couldn't understand was 'why'.

Why her?  She'd asked herself that so many times back in LA and again in Sunnydale.  But she'd been given her answer by Giles.  It was because she needed to learn to control her darkness before she began controlling her magic.

But now, she was the Slayer.  Or, more correctly, _a_ Slayer.  It was no longer the Chosen One, but the Chosen Two.  She couldn't help but breath a little easier when she realised that Faith was still alive.  The panic she'd felt when hearing those familiar words –_You are the Slayer-_ had half been because she and Faith had been able to understand each other.  They had both been given burdens they didn't want and been forced to carry them through life.  The weight of the world had been on their shoulders.  There was something in Faith that Buffy could see within herself.

Harry was sitting on Buffy's bed, silently watching his girlfriend pace.  He knew that this was a lot for Buffy to take in.  He hadn't really been able to think it through for himself either.  The thought of Buffy being the Slayer made his mind completely freeze.

He could still remember the panic he'd felt in his first year of meeting Buffy.  Two years ago when she'd sat he, Ron and Hermione down to explain about why she'd fought the vampires in the Forbidden Forest, he'd felt overwhelmingly protective of the small blonde girl.  He hadn't really understood it, but he knew that he didn't want Buffy to die.  He didn't want her to be killed.  

Buffy stopped abruptly, surprising Harry.  She turned to look at him, her eyes as serious as Harry had ever seen them.

"Buffy?"

"I gotta talk to Giles," Buffy said. 

Harry looked slightly surprised.  Buffy hadn't spoken a single word since the park, and to hear her now saying that she didn't want to confide in him hurt.  He knew, however, that he shouldn't be taking it personally.  After all, Giles was the closest thing Buffy had ever had to a father, and he was usually the man with the answers.

"I'll go with you," he offered.

Buffy shook her head.  "No.  No…I…I have to do this myself," she said, silently pleading with him to understand.

Harry sighed, hurt that she wasn't letting him support her.  He reluctantly nodded, knowing that there was no way that she would relent after making up her mind.

"When will you be back?" he asked.

"Tonight.  Late maybe, I don't know," Buffy said.

She was shifting from foot to foot, obviously eager to leave as soon as possible.  Harry sighed again, ran a hand through his hair and nodded.

"Be careful," he said.

Buffy nodded.  She began focusing herself, but shook it off.  She stepped forward and bent down to kiss Harry, slow and tenderly.  She pulled back and cupped his cheek.

"You know I love you," she whispered.  "No matter what happens."

He smiled and nodded and stood up to engulf her in a hug.  "Just like I love you.  Slayer or not.  Witch or not.  As long as you're my Buffy…I'll always love you."

She smiled and exhaled, extremely relieved.  That had been one of her worries.  Would Harry want her now that she'd been shackled with a destiny she thought she'd been rid of.

"Go," he whispered, stepping back and smiling softly at her.  

She nodded and took a step back as well.  She focussed her energies and felt the world shift around her.

-----

Well, here it is, as promised (a day late, but…shhh…I don't think anyone noticed).  Hope that's cleared up a few things about the whole Faith thing.  Other stuff will be brought up in later chapters (a lot in chap two with explaining the whole Slayer thing).  Hope you enjoy, and many, many, many thanks for all your feedback on the last chapter of AWF.

Toodles.

K.


	2. The School

CHAPTER TWO: THE SCHOOL

The halls of Hogwarts were surprisingly quiet and somewhat creepy.  Buffy's hand drifted to the stake that she'd unconsciously grabbed when she'd entered her room back in London.  She hadn't even noticed that she'd done it, but there it was, resting at the small of her back, tucked into the back of her jeans.  

She knew it probably wasn't necessary for her to be holding onto her stake while walking through Hogwarts, but her senses were tingling fiercely.

She couldn't help but compare what she was feeling now to what she'd felt the entire previous year.  It was definitely different.  When she'd still had her strength and speed, she could still sense the magic within Hogwarts.  Her spidey-sense as Xander had once dubbed it.  But now it seemed to be even more defined.  She made a mental note to ask Giles about that.

She crept stealthily through the corridors and down to Giles' room next to the DADA classroom.  She knocked quietly on the wooden panel next to the portrait keeping the students out of Giles' room.  

"_Ripper_," she muttered.

The portrait door swung open, and she scanned the room for her mentor.  He was knee deep in books, his shoulders slumped over the desk as he read by candlelight.  He apparently hadn't heard either the knocking or the portrait door opening.

She coughed quietly and Giles jumped.  He swung around and stood up quickly.

"Buffy?" he asked, surprised to see his ward's face.  He could tell even in the dim light that something was wrong.  He just couldn't put his finger on what it was.

"Hey Giles," she whispered.  "I didn't mean to scare you."

Giles stepped forward and gently placed his hand on Buffy's arm.  She was shaking beneath his touch, and Giles was immediately even more concerned.  He gently guided her to the chair he'd been in and sat her down.  He knelt in front of her and clasped her hands in his, surprised by how cold they were.

"What's happened?" he asked gently.  "Is Harry alright?"

Buffy nodded absently, not really hearing the question that he'd asked, but knowing the answer to it anyway.

"Buffy, please, you have to tell me what's happened," he implored.

She lifted her eyes to look into his.

"Do you know someone called Dominic Wood?" she asked quietly.

Giles was taken aback by the random question.  It hadn't been anything he'd been expecting, but he could tell that Buffy wanted an answer.  He cast his memory back through the copious amounts of people he'd met through the years.  

"Dominic…yes.  When I uh…I trained at the Watcher's Council for a year before I was sent to Sunnydale," Giles said.  "He was a Watcher-In-Training."

Buffy nodded.  Hearing that seemed to make it that much more real.

"Uh…why do you ask?  And how do you know Dominic?" Giles asked.

Buffy laughed a little, a slightly hysterical laugh that made Giles shiver with fear.  Not fear of Buffy, but more for her.

"He's my Watcher," she replied.

Giles froze.  Shock, surprise, fear and dread coursed through him and he fought to control his breathing, his mouth suddenly going dry.

"Good lord," he whispered.

Buffy giggled slightly, still in that hysterical way that was scaring even her.

"That was about my reaction," she said.  

"Buffy…I…I don't know what to say," he said quietly.

"That makes two of us then," she replied, shaking off her giggling fit.

Giles stood up and began pacing the length of his room.  

"This shouldn't be possible," he said quietly.  "You're not…at least I thought you weren't…I wasn't aware that you were a Potential."

"I'm not, remember," Buffy said.  She stood angrily.  "You told me that I was never meant to be a Slayer.  That the Ministry had just trained me as one to teach me right from wrong."

Giles stopped pacing and stared at Buffy thoughtfully.  He hadn't thought that this would ever happen to her.  He'd been fairly certain that she would never be a Slayer.  In fact, after the Ministry had stripped her of the spell that gave her the strength and healing, he was certain that Buffy would never have to worry about vampires or demons again.  She could have a normal life…or as much of a normal life as a very powerful witch could hope for.

"It shouldn't be possible," Giles said.  "But…then again, no one knows how Slayers are Chosen."

"I thought the Council chose them," Buffy said.

Giles shook his head.

"No, it's…well, for lack of a better explanation, it's theorised that the Slayers are Chosen by the Higher Powers.  Some think of it as the Powers That Be, others believe that it is God.  The Council doesn't choose them.  They have powerful mages who can sense where a Slayer is in the world." 

"They couldn't sense me here," Buffy commented.

"Pardon?"

"The Council…they couldn't sense me when I was at Hogwarts.  Apparently I've been a Slayer since Faith was in hospital."

"Good lord.  Faith!" Giles exclaimed.  "Is she…?"

"Still alive.  She flat-lined apparently," Buffy explained.  "Sort of like how you explained how Kendra was Called when I was still alive.  Except for the tiny fact that I wasn't actually the Slayer back then.  She died for long enough that another Slayer was Called.  Me."

Giles began pacing again.  His mind was working a mile a minute, trying to process what Buffy was telling him.  He couldn't believe that this had happened, and the land of denial seemed to be a much nicer place.  

"Perhaps…well, perhaps the Powers That Be saw the good you did in Sunnydale," Giles theorised.  "Perhaps they thought you best suited to the life of a Slayer."

"Best suited?" she asked, her voice rising in pitch by several notches.  "How is becoming a killer and dying before I'm twenty 'best' anything?"

Giles winced and removed his glasses, polishing them nervously.  Buffy sighed and sank back into her chair.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.  "It's not like it's your fault or anything."

"It's quite alright," he assured her.  "Have uh…did you speak to Dominic in depth about this?"

Buffy sighed and shook her head.  "I kinda wigged," she admitted.  "I'm meant to be meeting him in two days to discuss stuff."

"Would you like for me to accompany you?" he offered.

Buffy paused, considering Giles' suggestion.  As much as she would have liked to have taken Giles up on his offer, she knew that this was something that she needed to do by herself.  It was something that she was _meant_ to do by herself.

"Thank you, but…no.  I-"

"Need to do this on your own," he finished for her.

Buffy nodded thankful that he understood.

"I just…I just needed to tell you about all this," she explained.  "That's why I came."

"Perhaps tomorrow at Willow's dinner you'll be able to speak to Faith about all of this," Giles suggested.  "Get her input."

"Two Slayers," Buffy mused.  "I'm surprised it hasn't happened before.  I mean…properly.  Not with the messed up not-a-Slayer business back in Sunnydale."

"No doubt the Council will be very curious," Giles mused.

Buffy sighed and rolled her eyes.  It was strange to think that she hated the Council even when she'd never technically met anyone from within the organisation.  Besides Wesley of course, but strangely enough, Buffy trusted the man.  Perhaps it was because he was an ex-Hogwarts student.  Perhaps it was also because she could see the genuine affection that Wesley held for Faith.  From what little Buffy knew about Watcher's, she knew that they weren't supposed to be all that close to their charges.

"Don't suppose they'd let _you_ be my Watcher," Buffy said, pouting at Giles.

Giles chuckled slightly, truly touched by Buffy's suggestion.

"Somehow I doubt it," he replied.  "I was never given the full training required to become a Watcher.  That and it's a family business.  My family was never connected with the Watcher's Council."

"Well, it was worth a shot," Buffy grumbled.

"Do you wish for me to inform Professor Dumbledore?" Giles asked.

Buffy just shrugged. "That man has a knack for always knowing what's going on.  It wouldn't surprise me if he'd known for the last three weeks.  God…I'm a Slayer."

"That would explain your restlessness," Giles said, looking thoughtful.  "You mentioned that you had more energy than usual."

"Is that why my spells have been going nuts?" Buffy asked.  "I scared half the Seventh Year Transfigurations class to death when I made that tiger."

"It's possible," Giles said.  "Though in theory you should be used to possessing more power."

Buffy shook her head and leant forward in the chair.

"That's the thing Giles.  The Ministry was all gung-ho about taking away this extra power that I had, but…all they ever took from me was the physical stuff.  It wasn't about having less power.  I just wasn't as strong."

"So, you believe that the spell that the Ministry put on you three years ago was only to enhance your strength?" Giles asked.  "It had nothing to do with your magic?"

"It makes sense though, doesn't it?  The Ministry weren't about to make me stronger in my magic.  It was just about the strength.  So…now that I really _am_ the Slayer…wouldn't it stand to reason that I would be stronger in the magical department as well?" Buffy theorised.

Giles looked vaguely surprised by Buffy's logical explanation of it all.  It did make sense.  The Ministry hadn't been able to make Buffy the Slayer, that was literally impossible.  It was only the Powers That Be who could chose who became a Slayer.  And now that Buffy had officially been Called, her strength in all departments had increased dramatically.

"I suppose we should now be grateful that Cornelius Fudge is no longer the Minister of Magic," Giles commented.

Buffy nodded her agreement.  She'd had the same thoughts about that subject.  It seemed as though the new Minister of Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, would be far more reasonable in his newly acquired position.

"What about Sara?  Does she know?" Giles asked curiously.

Buffy winced.  She shook her head.  "How am I meant to tell her that?  'Oh, by the way, your daughter who you only really met for the first time six months ago, she's actually a Slayer who's probably going to die in the next three years'.  I'm sure that'd go down really well," Buffy said morosely.

Giles winced and frowned at the imagery that Buffy was making.  He couldn't exactly deny Buffy's words.  He'd been well versed in the Council's methods, and though he didn't agree with them, he knew that there was very little chance that a Slayer would make it past twenty-five if they were lucky.

"You have to tell her Buffy," Giles implored.

Buffy sighed and glared at him.

"Fine.  But if she has the same reaction that mom…that Joyce had, then I am not gonna be happy."

---

Wow…lotsa feedback for the first chapter.  Many thanks!  Glad you're liking this thing so far.  

A lot of you commented about Dominic not knowing about the whole Elizabeth/Slayer/witch thing.  If you go back to AMD, you'll see that Buffy's training as a Slayer was kept incredibly secret within the Council.  Only about five people actually knew about it, and Dom wasn't told who she is.  He's got no clue (about a lot of things really…)

Toodles.

DKG.


	3. The Dinner

CHAPTER THREE: THE DINNER

The day-early 'Christmas Eve' Dinner started well enough.  Faith was running late, as was apparently typical for her according to Willow.  Buffy was fidgeting nervously, wondering how to tell Willow about her new…or was it 'old'…status as the Slayer.  Willow, Tara, Buffy and Harry lingered in Willow's living room, chatting comfortably between the four of them.  Harry was keeping a hold of Buffy's hand to keep her from losing her nerves.  

She sighed in half-relief, half-terror when Faith entered the apartment.  She'd been waiting for the brunette girl to make her appearance before telling everyone about her Calling.  She knew that it also affected Faith.  She could remember the terror she'd felt when she'd met Kendra for the first time.  It had proven that she was mortal.  It had shown her that she had really died.  Except for the fact that it hadn't been her death that had activated Kendra as a Slayer.  It had been a girl on the other side of the world who was the actual Slayer.  Not Buffy.

Faith entered, carrying three shopping bags full of drinks.  She placed them on the table and suddenly tensed, feeling a presence within the room that made the back of her neck tingle.  Buffy too could feel the presence of something that made her senses begin to go haywire.  She jumped to her feet almost in time with Faith and the two Slayers went into identical fighting positions.

Faith's eyes locked onto Buffy's, and the brunette girl's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

She'd always been able to sense the magic that came off Buffy, Harry and Tara.  She could feel smaller amounts of it in Willow, but the three teens she could always sense.  She just couldn't work out why it was that Buffy Summers was now making her senses go off the charts.

"What are you?" Faith demanded angrily.

Willow stood up quickly, not understanding what was going on between her best friend and the brunette Slayer.  

"Woah, hey, time out here," Willow said, her voice slightly panicked.  "Let's not over-react."

Buffy and Faith both ignored the redhead, Faith refusing to let Buffy out of her line of sight, and Buffy trying to work out exactly what was going on.  

"I've never been able to sense you this much B," Faith said.  "What's the deal?  You get vamped or something?"

"Do I feel like a vampire to you?" Buffy retorted.

Faith extended her senses, trying to categorise what she was feeling.  It wasn't the same as a vampire.  Her skin was tingling, her stomach was tightening, but it wasn't in a bad way.  I felt…it felt almost familiar.  Like the missing piece of herself.  But that didn't make any sense.

"Why don't you just tell me what the hell is going on here before I rip you a new one," Faith threatened.

Buffy dropped her fighting position and reached behind her back to pull out a weapon.  She threw it to Faith who caught it easily.  The brunette Slayer stared dumbly at the weapon that felt so very familiar to her hands.

Faith looked between Buffy and the stake, her mind processing what was happening.  

"You're a Slayer," Faith finally said.

Buffy nodded.  Willow gasped.  Tara gaped.  

"How?" Willow asked.

Buffy looked to Faith, trying to see if the brunette girl understood why she was no longer the only Chosen One.

"I flat-lined," Faith remembered.  "In hospital.  I died."

"Long enough for another Slayer to be Called," Buffy finished.

Faith felt her mind spin and she quickly moved to sit on the couch before her legs gave out beneath her.  It was strange.  She knew that she'd been technically dead while she'd been in hospital, but having some sort of tangible proof seemed to make it that much more real.  

"Holy shit," Faith whispered.

"Sums it up," Harry quipped.

Faith smirked and looked up at Buffy.  

"How you holding up, B?" Faith asked, genuinely concerned for the girl.

Buffy shook her head and shrugged.

"Overwhelmed I guess.  I mean…I did the whole Slayer gig for two and a bit years, but…I thought I was finished with it," Buffy admitted.

"And now you really _are_ a Slayer," Willow added.

"Yup…two girls in all the world, chosen to hunt the vampires," Buffy quoted, looking up at Faith.

Faith couldn't help but smile at the familiar prophecy that her Watcher had been trying to get her to respect for the last year or so.  It hadn't worked so far, but there was definitely something about the way that Buffy had said it.

"Chosen Two, huh?" Faith asked.

Buffy grinned and nodded.  Faith stood and approached the shorter girl.  They stood in front of each other hesitatingly before they simultaneously held a hand out for the other to shake, their hands clasping each others wrists in a warrior's greeting.  

Tara watched in confusion before leaning towards Willow and whispering, "is there a secret handshake for Slayers?" 

Willow giggled and shook her head.  "Not that I know of.  I think they're just making it up as they go along."

The two Slayers hesitated a moment longer before giving in and hugging one another tightly.  Faith stepped back after a moment and coughed slightly.  Buffy grinned and looked to Willow.

"I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that we came here to get fed," Buffy said cheekily.

Willow laughed a little and nodded.  "Sure thing.  If there's one thing that Faith's taught me, it's not to get in between a Slayer and her food."

"Hey!" Faith cried indignantly.

Willow just smirked.  She looked to Tara and held her hand out to her girlfriend, tugging the tall blonde girl into the kitchen, leaving the two Slayers and the Wizard to converse.

"So, you got a Watcher, or what?" Faith asked.

Buffy rolled her eyes.  "Yup.  He seems like a bit of a git, but…I guess you can't have everything go your way," Buffy commented.

Faith grinned, understanding completely.

"Yeah, I get that.  Wes isn't too bad anymore.  He used to be a real ass, but…I loosened him up a bit," the brunette Slayer declared proudly.  "He can be pretty cool sometimes."

"He's an ex Gryffindor, of course he's gonna be pretty cool," Buffy said with a grin.

Harry looked at his girlfriend curiously.  As soon as he'd heard the familiar House name, his interest had been peaked.

"Gryffindor?  Faith's Watcher went to Hogwarts?" he asked.

Buffy nodded.  "Yup.  He was friends with Ron's dad," Buffy explained.

"Wicked!" Harry exclaimed, reminding Buffy of Ron for a moment.

"Wait…Wes is a wizard?" Faith asked incredulously.

Buffy looked at her sister Slayer in confusion.  "You didn't know that?"

"Hell no!" Faith replied.  "How the hell is it that you meet the guy for five minutes and you know more him that I do when I've known the guy for a year and a half?"

"Uh, Faith, you've avoided the guy for a year and a half, you mean," Willow reminded her as she re-entered the room with Tara.

Faith paused for a moment before nodding.  "Hmm…forgot about that slight detail."

------------------------

"Okay…is anyone else thinking that this is a tremendously _bad_ idea?" Willow asked.

Tara put her hand up nervously.  Harry just smirked and sat on the couch, eagerly awaiting what was to come.  

"C'mon Red, we won't do too much damage," Faith assured the nervous redhead.

Willow whimpered but took a seat beside Tara, clutching the younger girls hand.  

Buffy and Faith had shrugged out of their heavy jumpers and were left in t-shirts and jeans.  Their shoes had been discarded and all of the furniture in Willow's small living room had been moved to the side of the room.

The two Slayers were now circling each other, both of them grinning widely.  Neither of them had had sparring partners for a long time, especially not partners who would be able to keep up with them in terms of strength.  Buffy hadn't been able to spar with anyone properly since she and Angel had last sparred before he'd lost his soul.  

Faith was the first to strike, lunging towards Buffy, who quickly dodged the punch and countered with a low sweeping kick at Faith's legs.  The brunette Slayer jumped at the last moment, diving into a roll and landing on the other side of the room.  They circled each other again, this time Buffy striking first with a punch that landed accurately against Faith's jaw, sending the taller Slayer stumbling slightly.  

Faith regrouped and sent a stunning roundhouse kick at Buffy who didn't quite duck in time, and clipped Buffy's jaw.  She fell to the floor and quickly back-flipped back onto her feet.

"That really looks painful," Tara whispered to Willow.  The redhead nodded in agreement.

Harry was sitting slack-jawed and shifting his position every few seconds, taking in the sight of his girlfriend sparring with the taller brunette.  He'd seen Buffy and Hermione mock-spar a few times and it had never been anything like what he was watching now.  His girlfriend was practically dancing, and Harry could tell by the smile on Buffy's face that she was enjoying herself completely.

For twenty minutes, the two Slayers punched, kicked, dodged, ducked and weaved the many combinations of attacks that they'd been taught over the years, trying to get the best of each other.

Buffy managed to surprise Faith with a sharp punch to the jaw that sent Faith sprawling onto her back.  Buffy stood over the girl, a foot on her chest.  Faith tried to get up but decided it wasn't worth the effort.  She let her head drop to the floor and breathed in deeply.

"Had enough?" Buffy asked.  She took her foot off Faith and bent down to give the other girl a hand, helping Faith to get to her feet.

"Damn you're good," Faith said, breathing hard.

"You're not too bad yourself," Buffy complimented her.  "We'll hafta patrol together sometime."

Faith thought about it for a moment before grinning.

"Sounds cool B."

-----

Sorry for the delay in posting.  Had probs with my comp…never good.  Happy Australia Day people!!  Many thanks for all your feedback!

Toodles.

DKG.


	4. The Watcher

CHAPTER FOUR: THE WATCHER

Buffy sat in the swing seat, gently rocking back and forth, her feet scraping the dirt beneath her.  She heard a soft cough behind her and twisted the chains of the swing so that she was facing her new Watcher.

"Hey," she greeted softly.

He inclined his head to her and came to stand directly in front of her.  

"Have you given what I told you any more thought?" Dominic asked.

Buffy sighed and nodded.  "It's not like I really have a choice, is it?" she asked rhetorically.  "So…yeah, you've got yourself a Slayer."

Dominic sighed in relief.  He'd been somewhat worried about what he would tell the Council if she'd flat out refused to become a Slayer.  It had happened before, with Slayers who'd never been found when they were Potentials.  

"Excellent.  Well then, we'll have to discuss your uh…living arrangements, your training schedule and your patrol timetable," Dominic said, feeling slightly more confident now that he was back on ground he was familiar with.

Buffy's eyebrows furrowed together and she stopped the momentum of the swing completely, staring up at the Watcher with daggers in her eyes.

"What exactly do you mean by living arrangements?" she demanded angrily.

Dominic sighed.  He should have known that Buffy's capitulation wouldn't last very long.

"Well, you can't very well stay within the confines of your home.  Your parents must never find out about your duty.  I've already broken tradition and protocol by announcing your status as Slayer to the young man with you the other day," Dominic said, speaking slowly, as though the answer were completely obvious.

Buffy stood up, and even though she was a good foot shorter than Dominic, the man was smart enough to be intimidated by her.

"If you seriously think that I'm going to stop living my life, you've definitely got another thing coming," she said.

"Miss Summers…surely you must-"

"Surely I _must_ keep going to school, and seeing my friends and my family.  Surely, I must be able to have some sort of a life outside of Slaying.  I've seen Council trained Slayers.  They die because they have nothing to live for, and I refuse to become like that," Buffy said firmly.

"Miss Summers, there is no point in continuing your schooling," Dominic said delicately.   "Anything that a school is going to teach you will become…irrelevant.  The Council has it's resources, we can teach you the skills that you will need."

Buffy smirked.  Obviously the Council had no idea that she was a student at Hogwarts.  They most likely hadn't figured out that she was the same girl that they'd trained several Aurors as Watcher's for.  

"Trust me, everything I learn at school I'll be able to use," she assured him.

Dominic looked completely sceptical.  "Such as?"

Buffy grinned.  With a loud crack, she disapparated, and apparated directly behind Dominic.  The Watcher turned, completely startled, his eyes-wide and his jaw open in shock.

"Good lord," he whispered.

"Now do you believe me?" she asked.

"You never mentioned that you were a witch," he accused.

"And I'm meant to what, advertise the fact that I'm hell powerful?  Please…you don't want me telling people I'm the Slayer, and the school doesn't want me telling people I'm a witch."

"This is…unprecedented," Dominic said.  "None of our Slayers have ever had training in magic.  Not in centuries."

Buffy sighed and rolled her eyes.  Trust her to once again be special.  She was getting tired of being the only one who had been chosen for higher purposes.  That was probably why she and Harry got along so well, she mused.  They'd both been chosen for something, and had never been given any choices in the matter.

"Well, there you have it.  I'm a witch.  And a Slayer.  So, you don't have a hope in hell of dragging me away from Hogwarts," Buffy said defiantly.

Dominic nodded.  He mentally went over the plans he'd been making over the last few weeks for his charge.  At least now he wouldn't have to find a new apartment to accommodate another person living with him.  

"Very well.  But, how exactly do you plan to conduct nightly patrols?" he asked.

"I can apparate wherever I'm needed," Buffy replied simply.  "It's kind of a handy skill."

"Indeed," Dominic replied.  "I thought that the barriers at that school were, uh…impenetrable."

Buffy just shrugged.  "Apparently not to me."

Dominic didn't know how to reply to that, and settled on coughing uncomfortably.  He shifted his weight and Buffy took her seat on the swing once more, staring up at him.

"So…what about training and stuff?" Buffy asked.  "Cos, me and Faith had a sparring session yesterday and…well, I haven't had that much fun in a while.  Unless it was of a completely different nekkid variety."

Dominic flushed bright red, and Buffy grinned.  She could tell that making the man in front of her squirm was going to become a favourite activity very quickly.  Giles was far too used to her comments nowadays, so being able to ruffle her new Watcher's metaphorical feathers was good fun.

"Well, uh…I haven't found an adequate place to uh…train," Dominic admitted.  "But, I will begin looking into gymnasiums and the like that will allow us to hire out an entire room for large blocks of times."

Buffy frowned for a moment.  She suddenly grinned, and the look on her face had her new Watcher wondering what on earth the girl could be thinking.

"I think I know a place we can go," she said.  "I'll have to ask a few people, but…I'm pretty sure it'll be alright."

Dominic nodded, thankful at the thought of being spared the hassle of trying to locate an area where they could train without being interrupted or spied upon.  

"I'll be in touch two days after Christmas," Buffy said, standing once more.  "If you could contact Faith and Wes, you two Watcherly types can do whatever you do while me and Faith train."

Before Dominic could reply or protest, another loud crack sounded in the air, and Buffy was gone.  Dominic frowned and turned to eave the park, fairly certain that having to train a charge who could disappear at will was going to prove to be a challenge.  

----

The chapters will get longer, honest!

As for House of Black, my apologies for the delay, but I'm having probs with the computer I wrote it on.  *sighs*  Soon, honest. 

Many thanks for your feedback.

Toodles.

DKG.


	5. The Ball

CHAPTER FIVE: THE BALL

Harry Potter knew that his life was strange.  He had known that since his eleventh birthday, but the Christmas Eve of his Sixth Year at Hogwarts, he was definitely reminded of his bizarre life.

He was dressed in formal wear, playing idly with his cufflinks as Ron paced the Common Room nervously.  It was the same every year, the boys waiting in the Common Room for the girls to descend in their dresses and skirts.  But Harry knew that this year was going to be different.  This year, he had a steady and beautiful girlfriend.  Said girlfriend was also the most evil wizard ever known's daughter.  Said daughter was also a Vampire Slayer.  Not _the_ Vampire Slayer, but one of two.  And, said Vampire Slayer had made Harry swear that he wouldn't inform Ron or Hermione about the new change in her life.

Upstairs in the girl's dormitory, four Sixth-Year's and one Fourth-Year raced frantically around the room, trying to do last minute touch-ups.  Glamour charms and acne potions had been in high demand, and those who weren't up to doing the spells or potions themselves were begging others to do it for them.  Muggle make-up was in use with the muggle-borns who were only too willing to share with the pureblood witches, and the entire girls wing was in a panic as the time rolled closer to the Yule Ball.

Hermione had once again used magic to fix her perpetually bushy hair, and she'd styled it so that it was completely straight and reached half-way down her back.  Buffy's was piled on top of her head, strands falling out in a trendy messiness, framing her face.

The girls had altered their previous years dresses, using both magic and muggle means to change lengths and style of their dresses, but keeping the same colour.  Hermione in light blue and Buffy in light pink.  They'd tossed around the idea of swapping, but had decided that Hermione wearing pink when her boyfriend had red hair was just not going to work.

Ginny was in dark navy blue and had been completely secretive about who was partnering her.  Buffy and Hermione had tried bribing her with chocolate, but even that had not made the younger girl tell them who she was going with.  

The girls made the final touches and grinned at each other.

"Ready?" Hermione asked.

Ginny breathed in nervously.  "Ready," she replied.

Buffy looked across at the redhead and noticed the extra effort that the girl had put in.  She could remember the previous years ball when Ginny had gone with Colin Creevey.  She hadn't been as nervous, and she hadn't put anywhere near the effort in as she had for the Yule Ball they were about to attend.  Whoever she was partnering, she obviously wanted to make a good impression.

"Uh.Buffy?" Hermione started.  "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

Ginny took the hint and descended the stairs ahead of them, leaving the two best friends alone.

"What's wrong?" Buffy asked, slightly worried.  It wasn't everyday that Hermione looked so nervous about anything.

"Well, it's just.I wanted to know if maybe.well, if you and Harry.I mean.would you let Ron and I use the Room of Requirement tonight?" Hermione managed to get out.

Buffy's mouth dropped in shock.  She composed herself, her eyes still wide.  "Yeah, of course!" she replied.  "Wow.so.you and Ron?"

Hermione nodded, biting her lower lip.  

"That's really great for you guys," Buffy said genuinely.  "You know how to get into the room and everything, right?" 

Hermione nodded.  "Of course."

"Does Ron know?" Buffy asked.

Hermione just grinned and winked at her best friend before walking out the door.  Buffy could only laugh at Hermione's antics before following the brunette girl down the stairs and into the Common Room.

------------------------

As predicted, the boys were completely floored by the girl's outfits.  Ron had looked at Ginny, slightly shocked by the transformation that his younger sister had undergone.  He'd scowled, making a mental note to watch whoever it was that would be a partner to her.  His scowl had stopped immediately when his eyes lit on Hermione.  His jaw dropped and it was only Harry nudging Ron's ribs with his elbows that reminded the redheaded boy that he needed to say something.

"You look.incredible," Ron said.

Hermione blushed and kissed her boyfriend's cheek.  Ron turned slightly so that he caught her lips with his, the two of them engaging in a long and searing kiss.  Harry smirked and looked past the couple towards his own girlfriend.

His breath caught in his throat and he smiled widely.  Even a year and a half after meeting her, he still thought she was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen.  He stepped towards her and took her outstretched hand, bringing her knuckles up to meet his lips.

Buffy smiled and tugged Harry towards her, kissing him softly.  "I love seeing you in a tux," she admitted.

"Better than seeing me without a tux?" he asked cheekily.

Buffy just grinned and kissed him again.  

"I don't suppose you'd consider skipping the ball and just having a private party in our room?" Harry asked.

The Slayer had to admit that she was tempted to take Harry up on his offer.  Harry really did look amazing in formal wear, and Buffy knew that she and Harry would now be fighting Ron and Hermione for time within the Room of Requirement.  She chuckled a little and remembered that Harry had no clue.

"I don't think we'll actually be able to use our room tonight," Buffy said.

Harry's eyes narrowed.  "Why not?" he asked, a plaintive note in his voice.  Buffy could have sworn that he was pouting.

"Because." Buffy said, drawing the word out.  She leant closer to him to whisper in his ear.  "Ron and Hermione will be using it this evening."

Harry went to yell out, but Buffy quickly brought her hand up to cover his mouth.  His eyes were wide, and when Buffy removed her hand he leant forward to whisper frantically in her ear.

"Why didn't he tell me that?" he asked.

Buffy rolled her eyes.  "Because Ron _doesn't know_!" she explained.  "And you _can't_ tell him either."

Harry thought about it for a moment before grinning widely.  He nodded his consent and glanced over at the couple in question, who were still engaged in a deep kiss.  

"I won't tell, I swear."

------------------------

Buffy, Harry, Hermione and Ron walked into the Great Hall, the Christmas decorations covering the walls and every available area of space that could be used.  The Ball had already started, and several couples were already dancing to the slow music that was being provided by the live band up on the make-shift stage.

They four friends immediately scanned the room, looking for their friends.  

"Hey, there's Ginny!" Buffy said, pointing to the redheaded girl.  

The other three craned their necks to try and get a look at her partner, the four of them curious, as Ginny had kept it a secret and had refused to tell them whenever they had asked.

Ron's jaw dropped as he saw who it was that Ginny was talking to.

"Malfoy!"

Buffy grinned widely.  She'd been hoping that her cousin would have the guts to ask Ginny to the dance.  She hadn't been able to talk to him about it though and was glad that he'd finally gone ahead and just asked the younger Gryffindor girl.

"Good for them," Buffy commented.

Ron looked at her in absolute shock.  "You're joking, right?" he asked.  "My little sister and _Draco Malfoy_?" 

Buffy rolled her eyes.  "A year and a half ago I may have agreed with you," she commented.  "He's changed Ron, even you've seen that."

Ron seemed to deflate, but he was still pouting, his arms folded across his chest.  "Doesn't mean I have to like it."

Hermione rolled her eyes at her boyfriend's antics and grabbed him by the hand, pulling him onto the dance floor.  

Buffy and Harry stared at each other.

"It's nice to see nothing's changed between Hermione and Ron," Harry commented, grinning widely.  "They haven't lost their spark."

"It's what makes them so interesting," Buffy agreed.  

Harry pulled Buffy into his arms and they swayed slowly together, Buffy's head tucked beneath Harry's chin as they danced.  

"Do you know what today is?" Buffy asked.

"Christmas Day," Harry replied seriously.

Buffy scoffed and hit Harry's arm.  "No, I'm being serious here."

Harry smiled and pressed a kiss to Buffy's forehead.  "I know you are.  And, yes I know what today is."

Harry reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small box.  He smiled and handed the box to Buffy who took it cautiously.

"Open it," Harry prodded gently.

With shaking hands, Buffy undid the ribbon that was tying the box closed.  She opened the lid and gasped as she saw the white-gold ring nestled in velvet.  Encrusted in the band was three small diamonds that Buffy knew were real.  

"It's beautiful," she whispered.

Harry gently took the ring out of the box and slowly slid it onto the middle finger of her right hand.  He brought her fingers to his lips and pressed a gentle kiss against the white-gold band.

"Now everyone knows that you're mine," he explained.

Buffy smiled and blinked away tears.  "I think everyone kinda knows that already."

Harry just shrugged.  "Well now it's set down in metal and stones."

Buffy smiled and lightly kissed her boyfriend.  Even after a year, he could still make her knees go weak, and turn her to mush with just a look.  He'd stuck by her through thick and thin.  He'd proven time and time again just how much he cared about her, and she knew that when things got rough, he would always be there.

"Your gift's still up in my room," Buffy admitted.  

"I think my gift's right here in my arms," Harry whispered.

Buffy smiled brightly.  No matter how cheesy Harry was, he could always make her smile and her heart beat just a little bit faster.  

"You know, I'm starting to regret telling Hermione that she could use our room," Buffy admitted.  

Harry sighed, remembering their earlier conversation.  He really wanted to get Buffy alone for the evening, but he just didn't know how to do that when the Room of Requirement was going to be used by Ron and Hermione.  As happy as Harry was for the two of them, he really wanted a night with Buffy.

"Do you think Dumbledore would mind if we.vanished for a night?" Harry whispered.

Buffy chuckled softly and nestled her head on Harry's shoulder, sighing contentedly.  

"I think he'd forgive us just this once," Buffy replied.

"It's hard to believe that it's only been a year since everything happened," Harry commented.  "It feels like a lifetime."

"We got through it though," Buffy said.  "Through all the crap, and my uh.multitude of kidnappings-" Harry snorted with laughter.  "And the Slytherins trying to break us up.we came through it."

"I guess we must really love each other," Harry commented, grinning.

Buffy smiled and laughed, pressing a kiss to Harry's neck.  "I guess we must."

----

Awwww, more mush.

Two updates today!


	6. The Session

CHAPTER SIX: THE SESSION

Once Buffy had the all clear from Dumbledore about using the Room of Requirement for training purposes with Buffy's Watcher as well as Faith and Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, the blonde Slayer didn't waste a moment organising the first of what would be many training and sparring sessions with Faith.

The first meeting with Wesley had been met with some scepticism on the Watcher's part.  He'd been schooled at Hogwarts, and he knew that it wasn't possible to apparate into Hogwarts.  When Buffy had rolled her eyes, grabbed him by the hand and they'd apparated into the centre of the Great Hall, ("Good lord.") he'd been convinced.  

Faith and Dominic had been fascinated by absolutely everything magical, and it had taken a lot of coaxing to get them into the Room of Requirement.  Wesley hadn't known of its existence, and was surprised by the items that kept appearing whenever he really needed something to be within reach.  He'd brought out his old wand, and had been brushing up on his Defence Against the Dark Arts spells, impressing Faith who had never known that her Watcher could actually be 'kinda cool'.

It had been decided that Faith and Wesley would stay in London a while longer, since Faith and Buffy appeared to be a good influence on each other.  The girls actually looked forward to training, mainly so they could train together and learn new moves against each other.  

"Faith, you're dropping your left shoulder," Wesley chided from the sidelines.

Faith rolled her eyes, and tried the move again, Buffy ducking beneath her arm and knocking Faith off her feet with a low spinning kick.  Faith hit the mats hard, but rolled into it, jumping to her feet and trying to startle Buffy with a spinning roundhouse kick.  

Buffy dodged and didn't even see the fist coming at her face until her jaw began stinging.  She pushed past the pain of the punch and countered it with her own backhand at Faith's jaw, hitting the taller Slayer accurately.

"Good!" both Wesley and Dominic said in unison.

"Wanna try with weapons?" Buffy whispered to Faith.

Faith grinned wickedly and nodded.  Before they even began looking around for weapons, two swords appeared in their hands and the Slayers began their dance, blades swinging and clanging against each other.

Both Watchers jumped to their feet in shock.  They hadn't been expecting the sudden appearance of weapons.  Dominic went to admonish the Slayers for not sticking to the program of the day, but when he saw how well matched they were against each other, his protests died down before they'd even begun.

For almost two hours on end the two Slayers moved with strength and speed around the training room, different weapons replacing the swords.  Bows, short swords, daggers and even crossbows came into play as the Slayers continued their training.  

Their Watchers stood to the side, critiquing their forms and telling the Slayers where they were going wrong.  Buffy and Faith for their parts were having the time of their lives.  

Faith had never had a sparring partner that was her equal before, and it was definitely exhilarating.  Buffy hadn't had someone to spar with at full strength since before Angel had lost his soul, and Faith was definitely a worthy opponent.

As the training session drew to a close, the Slayers were covered in sweat and were hyped on the adrenaline rush that the session had provided them.

"Uh.Buffy?" Dominic said hesitantly.  "If you would be so kind as to give us.transport home."

Buffy smirked.  She nodded and gripped Dominic's wrist, disappearing with a pop.

Faith shook her head, still unable to really grasp the concept of being able to disappear at will.

"Freaks me out every time," Faith commented.

"Yes, it is rather.extraordinary isn't it," Wesley agreed.

Faith looked at her Watcher, an expression of confusion on her face.  "Uh.Wes.I thought you could do that whole 'pop goes the Wesley' thing as well."

Wesley looked slightly startled by Faith's phrasing of the question but shook it off.

"I can't apparate or disapparate within Hogwarts," he explained.  "Not even the Headmaster himself is powerful enough to do that."

Buffy reappeared with a loud crack, and Faith's eyes were wide with awe.

"Holy shit, B.  You're like Luke Skywalker or somethin'," Faith said excitedly.

Buffy groaned and glared at Wesley.  "Why'd you have to tell her about _him_?" Buffy complained.

"Him?" Faith asked.  "Him who?"

"Oh, uh.no one," Buffy stuttered.  "What were you talking about?"

"About you being able to appetite or applegate or whatever in and out of the school when even your big cheese can't do it," Faith explained.  

"That would be apparate," Buffy said, grinning at Faith's mis-wording.  

"Yeah that's what I said," Fiath replied cheekily.  "And don't try and change the subject."

Buffy sighed tiredly.  It wasn't a conversation that she particularly wanted to have.  She grabbed Wesley's wrist and the Watcher and Slayer disappeared with a crack.  Faith sighed, knowing that Buffy was stalling.  Why, she didn't know.  All she knew was that she wanted to find out.

She noticed a book suddenly appear on the floor in front of her.  She bent down to pick it up, studying the front cover.

'_The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts_.'__

Faith didn't understand magic at all, but she knew the basics of the room she was in.  If she required something, it appeared in front of her.  What she now wanted to know was why she'd required a book on Dark Wizards.  

The book flipped open, the pages moving as though possessed by something until they stopped at Chapter Thirteen.  The Rise and Fall of Voldemort.  

She skimmed through it, frowning at the various mentions of 'muggle-deaths' and 'massacres' that were sprinkled throughout the pages.  She stopped when she came to a bone-chilling paragraph.

'_Lord Voldemort believed that leaving an heir behind would solidify his reign of terror.  He chose a pure-blood woman and with her, produced an heir.  It was not discovered until early 2000 that the child was not killed after Voldemort's defeat.  The girl-child was given to a muggle family and taught by hand-picked Ministry of Magic members about the difference between good and evil.  Elizabeth T. Riddle was later admitted to Hogwarts.  The Dark Lord's daughter has shown to be tremendously powerful with her magic.  Within six months she'd been taught nearly six years of spells, and within a year, Elizabeth began taking Seventh-Year classes at Hogwarts.  It has been proven by Elizabeth that the impenetrable barriers of Hogwarts to keep witches and wizards from apparating into Hogwarts Grounds are not as impenetrable as it was thought, and it is possible for the girl to both apparate and disapparate on the grounds of the school.'_

_'Voldemort's final and last defeat came at his daughter's hand, with the help of Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived and Draco Malfoy, the son of a prominent Death-Eater.  At this time, the daughter of the Dark Lord, and the Boy-Who-Lived were dating, and currently still are.  Elizabeth T. Riddle officially had her name changed to Elizabeth 'Buffy' Anne Summers, to honour the muggle family she grew up with.'_

Faith's hands were shaking, which was a first for the dark-haired Slayer.  A loud crack sounded in the room, and Faith looked up to meet Buffy's eyes.  The blonde Slayer took one look at the book in Faith's hands and knew that the girl had already discovered Buffy's heritage.  Something that Buffy had hoped to never have to share with Faith.

"So.now you know," Buffy said quietly.

"Shit B," Faith whispered.  "I knew you were powerful as all get-out, but.this is just.heavy."

Buffy nodded.  She sighed, resigned to the fact that her past would follow her wherever she went, no matter how much she didn't like owning up to who her father was.

"Does it bother you?" Buffy asked.

Faith paused, her head cocked to the side, regarding Buffy curiously.  It was hard to imagine Buffy as the most powerful witch in England, but that was what the book on the Dark Arts had implied about her.  And while it was frightening, Faith knew that who your parents were didn't define who _you_ were.

"Nah, we're cool," Faith said honestly.  "I mean.it's not like my dad was the nicest guy on the planet either."

Buffy smiled genuinely at the girl, thankful that nothing had changed between them.  

"So.patrol?"

----

So.if you've read House of Black before this, you're already know, but I'm not gonna be updating again until either Monday or Tuesday due to me moving back to uni.  So.you got two updates to kinda compensate.  Enjoy, and review please!

Many thanks for all your feedback, you guys seriously ROCK!

Toodles.

DKG.


	7. The Ghost

CHAPTER SEVEN: THE GHOST

School started back, and neither Hermione nor Ron had been told about Buffy's new status as the Slayer.  Buffy and Harry had had several discussions about telling them, but for now, Buffy wanted to keep it between them.  Not even Draco knew.  It wasn't something that she wanted to be passed around school just yet, and she knew that the more people who knew, the likelier it was to be passed around as rumour.

She already had enough people fearing her as it was.  She didn't need more people thinking she was a psycho because she had started patrolling the Forbidden Forest at night.

The only other time she'd really been in the Forest had been the year before with Giles when the nest of vampires had been snacking on the centaurs.  Apart from that incident, Buffy had kept away from the Forest and its beckoning darkness.  Now that she was the Slayer though, she couldn't seem to stay away.

There was something incredibly beautiful about the darkness that rested within the trees, and Buffy could feel the Forest calling out to her to join its depths.  Every night she gave in to the urge to hunt, wondering whether or not Faith did the same thing.

Back in Sunnydale, she'd never been too keen to actually patrol, but now that she was at Hogwarts, sometimes it was all she could think about.  She wondered whether or not it had to do with the fact that she was finally the _real_ Slayer, not just imbued with the strength of one.  It was fascinating, discovering the differences between her old strength and the new power that she could feel running through her veins.

She was still having a certain amount of difficulty controlling the power of her magic, and she'd found that the less she thought about performing a spell, the better it worked.  If she concentrated on making a spell happen, it usually would have four or fives times more fire-power behind it.  And that was definitely a bad thing.  

The only magic-orientated subject she'd found that she wasn't trying to reign herself in had been in Potions.  And while Snape may still not have liked her all that much, she at least wasn't making things explode or accidentally transfiguring a rat into a tiger.  

Her dreams had become darker, and more frequently, Buffy awoke from nightmares, sometimes of the past, sometimes of the future.  She'd been having recurring dreams that she knew were meant to belong to Harry and Harry alone, but she'd been seeing things from his perspective.  Sometimes it was the evening of his parents death, sometimes the horrors of growing up with the Dursleys.  Other times it was the night Cedric had been killed and Voldemort had returned, and others had been Voldemort kidnapping Buffy and using the Cruciatus Curse on her.  

Buffy hadn't mentioned the shared dreams to her boyfriend, preferring to keep it to herself for the moment.  She'd had the problem earlier the previous year and Dumbledore had explained it was the connection between Harry and Voldemort that Voldemort had accidentally made when he'd left Harry the scar that would forever mar Harry's forehead. 

Now, she was trying to work out why she was still having the dreams when the connection had been severed.  Voldemort was dead, and in no way was he able to return.  Dumbledore and several other Aurors had seen to it, and Buffy knew within her soul that her father would never haunt the wizarding world again.  It was something she was infinitely thankful for.

Buffy sighed, and listened carefully to the gentle breathing coming from the other four girls in the room.  She could tell that Hermione, Ginny, Lavender and Parvati were all asleep.  She was thankful for that small relief.

She slipped out of bed and pulled her leather coat around her shoulders, having gone to bed in jeans and a sweatshirt, knowing that it would only be a matter of hours before she slipped out of the room to patrol.  She grabbed her weapons, stashing them in the various hiding places that were easily accessible, and she quietly crept to the windowsill.  She eased it open and perched on the ledge.  She pushed herself off, freefalling in mid-air.  She quickly apparated so that she was standing on the ground instead of falling.

When her feet hit the solid ground, she grinned in relief.  It was a rush, falling from the window like that, and she'd been worried the first time she'd tried it that it wouldn't work.  It had, and she'd done so every night after that, ensuring she wasn't in the Gryffindor dorms when she apparated, knowing that she'd wake them up with the loud crack that was the telltale sign of someone disapparating.  

"That was risky," a voice said in the darkness.

Buffy gasped and spun to face the owner of the voice.  Her eyes narrowed, and she tried placing the tall man with black hair and strangely familiar glasses.

"And?" she asked testily.

She didn't like the vibes she was getting off the mysterious British stranger at all.  He reminded her of someone, and she could only hope that the person in front of her _wasn't_ who she suspected it to be.  

"Well, I'd really prefer it if my son's girlfriend didn't kill herself by jumping out a window twenty storeys high," he said.

Buffy sucked in a breath of air, her face going pale.  

"James Potter," she whispered.

"Good guess," he replied.  "I'm glad to finally meet you by the way."

Buffy swallowed hard.

"I'd say 'likewise', but…you're dead," Buffy said.

James chuckled heartily.  "Yes I know.  It's rather unfortunate really.  I'd have liked to have seen my son grow up.  Knowing that he grew up with the Dursley's is enough to make me turn over in my grave."

Buffy could feel bile rising in her throat.  She was not liking this conversation at all, and she wanted very much to get as far away as possible.

"Look, uh…James.  It was nice meeting you and all, but…I'd really rather not stand here and chat with a dead guy," Buffy said.

James shrugged and, as Buffy turned and walked away, he kept stride with her, his shadow melding into hers.

"Well, I'd rather my son didn't go out with the girl whose father murdered my wife and I, but…well, we can't have everything," James said.

Buffy stopped dead in her tracks and turned to look at what she was suddenly very convinced _wasn't_ a figment of her imagination.

"What did you just say?" Buffy asked angrily.

Within an instant, James' smile had vanished and his eyes lost their sparkle.  

James looked down at her, his superior height making her feel suddenly very insignificant.  While she may have been the Slayer, hearing her boyfriend's father, (his _dead_ father at that) telling her that he didn't like the fact that she was dating his son was like a slap in the face.

"You heard me Elizabeth Riddle," James said coldly.  "You should have been killed by the Ministry when they had the chance.  Instead, you're…corrupting my son."

"No," Buffy whispered.  

"Yes," James insisted.  "You…you claim to love him, yet you continue to hurt him."

"I haven't," Buffy said quietly.

"Haven't you?  You refused to let him comfort you when you became the Slayer.  You won't let him tell his best friends about your new title.  You dragged his name through the mud when everyone found out who you truly are," James said.  He shook his head disapprovingly.  

"You're not real," Buffy said, tears welling in her eyes.

James chuckled softly and stepped forward.  "I am real Elizabeth," he whispered.  "I'm real, and I'm here, and I want you to stay away from Harry."

Buffy shook her head.  "It won't happen," she replied.  "I'm not staying away."

James shook his head sadly.  "Then you really don't love him," James said.  "That's a pity.  Because of everything I know about you Elizabeth, I do know that you genuinely love my son.  But…you'll destroy him.  And all of the wizarding world as well.  You think you know…what you are?  What's to come?  You haven't even begun."

Buffy shook her head, her hands trembling.  She didn't trust herself to speak, knowing that any words that came out would be too shaky to be understood.

"Trust me Elizabeth," James said.  "You can't possibly believe that you'll ever be any good to him." 

"You don't know what you're talking about," Buffy said.

"Yes I do," James replied firmly.  "You were born to darkness and that is all you can ever bring.  You'll ruin him.  Break him beyond recognition.  All because you were too selfish to let him go."

"I don't believe you," Buffy said weakly. 

James sighed and stepped back.  

"Believe it or don't, you're still going to be the ruin of my son.  And I don't want to see that come to pass.  He's suffered enough, don't you think?" James asked.  "If you truly loved him, you'd let him go Elizabeth."

"Stop calling me that."

"It's who you are," James replied.  "Who you'll always be.  You try and you try, but you can _never_ escape from your past, your future.  Your destiny.  It was written in the stars before you were born.  You _are_ Elizabeth.  You forever shall be Elizabeth, and nothing you can say or do will make that any less true."

Buffy was shaking her head in denial, her entire body trembling as she listened to James Potter telling her the innermost thoughts she'd had since Giles had told her who she truly was. 

"Stay away from Harry, Elizabeth.  And prove that you really love him after all."

Buffy stared at James for a moment longer.  She couldn't take another second of his presence, and she disappeared with a loud crack.

James Potter's lips twisted into a cruel and cold smile and he looked up at the castle of Hogwarts.

"This is going to be easier than I thought it would be."

----

Good fun eh?  Many thanks for your feedback and stuff.  You guys rock the kasbah!  (Whatever the hell that actually means)

Oh, oh…and for all of you B/G fans out there, go and check out this kick ass site that is a virtual Season Eight that has B/G goodness.  Completely and honestly believable.  written, and just incredible!  Check it out, you won't regret it!

DKG


	8. The Discovery

CHAPTER EIGHT: THE DISCOVERY

Hermione awoke with a start, and she looked around the room, trying to pinpoint what it was that had startled her out of sleep.  Her eyes adjusted to the small amount of light, and the Gryffindor girl slipped out of her bed and shrugged on her dressing gown.  She had an inkling that it had been Buffy who had disturbed her sleep, and as she crept towards her best friends bed, she was even more sure of it.

Lying on top of the covers, fully dressed and trembling fiercely, her arms wrapped around herself, tears streaming from her eyes.  Hermione gasped and raced to sit next to Buffy, pulling the other girls head onto her lap and gently stroking Buffy's hair.

"What happened?" Hermione whispered.  "Are you okay?"

Buffy shook her head, keeping her eyes closed.  

"Was it a nightmare?" Hermione asked.

"No.  Maybe.  I don't know," Buffy replied, her voice pitifully soft and trembling as badly as her body was.

"Do you want me to go and get Harry?" Hermione whispered, desperately worried for the girl.  She'd never seen Buffy in such bad shape before.  Frankly, it was scaring her to death.

"No!" Buffy yelped.  

Hermione froze worriedly.  

"Has something happened to Harry?" Hermione asked.

Buffy shook her head.  "No.  Not yet.  I don't know.  I hope not.  Oh god, what if he's right?"

Hermione couldn't even begin to understand what Buffy was talking about.  Instead, she just kept stroking Buffy's hair, trying to get the girl to calm down.  Several minutes later, the trembling had sopped, but Buffy was still incredibly upset.

The Slayer toed off her boots and shrugged out of her coat, discarding her unused weapons.  Hermione's eyes widened a the sight of the stakes that Buffy tossed into the trunk at the end of the bed.

"What were you doing outside?" Hermione asked.

Buffy sighed, knowing that there was no point in keeping her identity secret from her best friend any longer.  She knew that the brilliant girl would figure it out sooner or later, and she knew that there would be less anger if she just confessed to it now.

"Patrolling," Buffy replied.

Hermione sighed.  "Buffy, you know you're not as strong as you used to be," Hermione said gently.  "You can't go out patrolling."

"That's where you're wrong," Buffy replied.  "I am as strong as I used to be.  Stronger actually."

"What?"

"Remember when Faith was in the hospital?  She died…momentarily.  Long enough for another Slayer to be Called.  And that Slayer is me," Buffy explained.

Hermione's eyes widened.  "You're a Slayer?  For real now?"

Buffy nodded.  "Yup.  Half of the Chosen Two," she explained.

"Good lord," Hermione whispered softly.

Buffy giggled slightly.  Her friend definitely reminded her of Giles.

"Does Harry know?" Hermione asked.

Buffy nodded.  "He was there when I found out," she admitted.  "I was gonna tell you and Ron, but…I didn't want you guys looking at me any differently."

"And Dumbledore's alright with you going into the Forest every night?" Hermione asked.

Buffy nodded.  "Yeah.  And he's letting Faith and I use the Room of Requirement for training and stuff," Buffy explained.  

"Oh…uh…well, Ron and I will have to be careful about when we try and go in there from now on," Hermione said.

Buffy giggled slightly, the normal conversation calmly her frazzled nerves.  She breathed in deeply, allowing herself to completely calm down.  Now that she was in the comfort of her room, speaking with one of her best friends, she couldn't help but wonder if speaking with James Potter had been a dream.

Hermione saw the change in her friend.  "Alright there?" she asked gently.

Buffy nodded.  "Yeah.  I'll be okay.  Thanks."

"It's what I'm here for," Hermione reminded her.  "Did you want to talk about what made you so worked up?"

Buffy shook her head, her eyebrows furrowing together.  She didn't even want to think about it let alone talk about it.

"Just a dream," Buffy whispered.

Hermione nodded and moved back to her own bed.

Buffy laid her head on her pillow and closed her eyes, allowing the pull of sleep to drag her into unconsciousness.

------------------------

_//"Harry!" Buffy yelled, running towards her fallen boyfriends side._

_Harry reached up, his hand trembling.  He touched Buffy's face, the blood from his wound staining Buffy's already dirty cheek._

_"Oh god, hold on," Buffy whispered frantically, her fingers clutching the crossbow bolt that stuck out from Harry's chest._

_Harry shook his head.  "Too late for me," he replied softly.  _

_"This shouldn't have happened," Buffy whispered.  "It wasn't mean to happen like this."_

_"You did it Buffy," he whispered softly.  "You killed me."_

_"No," Buffy protested._

_Buffy felt a hand on her shoulder.  She looked up and saw her father standing behind her, a proud smile on his face._

_"My Elizabeth," he said.  He took her by the hand, and pulled her to stand beside him.  "You've done me proud."_

_"It wasn't meant to happen!" she yelled._

_Voldemort's hand strayed to Buffy's face, touching her cheek in a fatherly gesture._

_"It was always going to happen.  I always knew you would follow the path I set for you," he told her._

_Buffy tried to take a step back, but she felt as though her feet were glued to the floor in front of the evil man that was her father._

_A hand grabbed hold of her arm and spun her around.  She looked up into James Potter's angry eyes._

_"Wasn't it enough that your father killed Lily and I?  Why'd you have to kill my son as well?" he demanded._

_"It…it wasn't meant to…it was an accident," Buffy protested._

_"I told you to stay away from him," James said angrily._

_James swung his gaze to look at his now dead son.  Buffy looked over at Harry and felt tears well in her eyes.  Kneeling beside Harry was Lily Potter, cradling her dead son in her arms, sobbing heavily.  The redheaded woman looked up at Buffy, her green eyes identical to Harry's, cold and accusing._

_"You killed him."//_

------------------------

Buffy awoke with a gasp.  She threw the covers off her body and stumbled out of bed, her legs failing her.  She fell to the ground and found herself heaving into a bucket that had magically appeared in front of her.  She threw up until her stomach was completely empty.  She closed her eyes and lent back against the side of her bed, her knees brought up to her chest.

------------------------

In the boys' dormitory of the Gryffindor Tower, Harry awoke, his scar aching for the first time in nearly a year.  He couldn't remember what had awoken him, and, if he remembered his dream properly, it wasn't anything that should have caused him pain.  Well…at least not in his head…  

He rubbed at his scar absently before laying back down, making a mental note to ask Professor Dumbledore about it at a later stage.

------------------------

Buffy tried to calm her breathing, her mind involuntarily going back over the dream that she'd just awoken from.  She wiped angrily at the tears in her eyes.  She could only pray that the dream she'd just had wasn't prophetic, but merely something that her subconscious was afraid of.

After a few moments of composing herself, she stood and donned her school uniform before making her way down to the Great Hall, not bothering to wait for Hermione or Ginny.

The Hall was mostly empty.  The majority of the Hall's occupants were Professors, most of whom were looking over books as they ate breakfast.  She spotted Giles and smiled weakly at him, hoping that he wouldn't worry about her.

She took a seat at the Gryffindor table, thankful that no other Sixth-Years seemed to be awake yet.  She propped her head on her hand, leaning her elbow against the table.  A cup of coffee appeared in front of her, and she sipped at it thankfully.  

Her eyes closed tiredly, only to see Harry's dead body behind her closed lids.  She opened her eyes, and saw an image of a seventeen-year-old James Potter sitting opposite her.  He grinned at her cheekily.

Buffy blinked rapidly, trying to clear her vision.  When she looked again, he was gone and all that was left was an empty seat.

"Way to have a breakdown, Summers," she whispered to herself.

"That's one of the signs of madness you know," a voice said from beside her.

She looked to her right at the girl who sat beside her.  She looked oddly familiar, but Buffy couldn't place where she'd seen the girl with gentle blue eyes before.

"What is?" Buffy asked.

"Talking to yourself," the girl informed her.

Buffy just shrugged.  She took another sip of her coffee before remembering an important detail.  The girl sitting beside her had been dressed in the Hufflepuff house insignia.  She turned back to the right to ask the girl who she was, but the person speaking to her had mysteriously vanished.

Buffy closed her eyes, trying to convince herself that she wasn't going crazy.

"You okay?" asked a familiar voice.

Buffy opened her eyes, thankful to see Harry taking a seat beside her.  He pressed a kiss to her forehead, and Buffy gratefully leaned her head against his shoulder, taking comfort in the solidness he provided for her.

"Going crazy, but otherwise I'm okay," she informed him.

"Going?" he repeated, grinning cheekily.

Buffy sighed, but forced herself to muster up a smile for his sake.  Harry looked down at her worriedly, wondering what was wrong with the girl that he loved.  He'd never seen her look so tired before, and it was definitely a worry when she wouldn't even smile at Harry's jibes.

"Are you okay?" he asked again, his voice more serious.

"Didn't sleep well," Buffy replied.  

"You wanna spend tonight in the Room of Requirement?" he asked.  "Just to sleep maybe.  I know I have trouble sleeping without you sometimes."

Buffy smiled and nodded.  She could only hope that spending the night with Harry would erase the ghosts of the past that continued haunting her.  She didn't know if she would be able to cope with James Potter popping up every now and then to haunt her.

"That'd be good thanks," Buffy replied.

Harry smiled and brought an arm around Buffy's shoulders, pulling his girlfriend closer, trying to offer her what comfort he could.

----

Awww, mushiness.  Loving the feedback guys, thank you!!

Toodles.

DKG.


	9. The Apparition

CHAPTER NINE: THE APPARITION

Buffy couldn't sleep.  That wasn't entirely unexpected, considering the crazy day she'd had, but even secreted away in the Room of Requirement with Harry's arms wrapped protectively around her, Buffy still couldn't drift into unconsciousness.  She sighed tiredly and gently extracted herself from Harry's embrace.

She walked over to the window overlooking the Forbidden Forest.  She'd done a quick patrol earlier, only to find a single demon that had been lurking in the shadows.  It wasn't any demon she'd seen before though, and she wondered what it was doing so close to Hogwarts.  It had been clothed in a black cloak and hood, covering it's face.  Buffy had only got a good look at the creatures face when she'd kicked it to the ground.  The strange thing about the demon was that it looked almost human in appearance except for its eyes and its mouth.  Its eyes were shut completely, looking as though they'd been sewn together, x's crossing them to keep the lids closed.  Their mouths were similar, and Buffy had wondered how it had managed to fight with her considering it was blind.

The kill had been surprisingly easy and somewhat disappointing, and Buffy was left feeling somewhat unfulfilled.  She didn't like thinking about her desire for the hunt, and it was something best left to the back of her mind.

"Can't sleep?" a voice whispered from behind her.

She swallowed hard and turned to face the woman standing only two feet away.

"Can't stay dead?" Buffy replied.

Jenny Calendar grinned and chuckled slightly.  "I remember why I liked you."

"And I remember that you're not meant to be here.  So, whatever the hell you are, you can go out the way you came in," Buffy said firmly.

Jenny sighed and folded her hands neatly in front of her.

"I'm afraid I can't do that Elizabeth," Jenny said, sadness tinging her voice.

"Why's that?" Buffy asked.  "And don't call me that."

Jenny stepped forward slightly and looked down at the Slayer.

"I'm here because of you," Jenny whispered softly.  "It's you who pulled me here.  It's you who can set me free."

"Me?" Buffy repeated.

Jenny nodded.  She began slowly circling Buffy, the Slayer turning so that Jenny was always in her line of sight.  Buffy hated not knowing what was happening, and the sudden appearance of her Watcher's dead girlfriend was not something that would help her sleep at night.

"You called me here Elizabeth," Jenny explained.  "You are the one that brought me into this world again."

"Giles tried calling you," Buffy said, thinking back to the incident with the ghosts of the long-dead lovers James and Grace.  Giles had been convinced that the spirit had been Jenny, but after being possessed by a different spirit, Buffy was very certain that it had not been the techno-pagan that had been haunting the halls of Sunnydale High School.

"He did," Jenny confirmed.  "But he could not bring me forth.  He was not powerful enough.  He wasn't dark enough."

"I am _not dark_," Buffy insisted.

Jenny just shrugged as though the comment meant nothing to her.  

"Believe what you want.  But it's you who made this possible," Jenny said.

"How?  Why?" Buffy asked.

Jenny smirked.  "Oh, but that would be telling," she said tauntingly.  "Just know that we're always watching you."

"We?"

Jenny nodded.  Within the blink on an eye, Jenny had disappeared and James Potter was standing in her place.  

"James," Buffy whispered.  

James looked past her, towards the bed, where Harry lay, one hand thrown across his eyes to keep the light out as he slept.

"You still haven't heeded my warning," James said.  "I thought you said you loved him."

"I do," Buffy replied.  Tears were forming in Buffy's eyes, and she knew that whatever was happening to her was not something that she could handle.  She was tempted to wake Harry and explain about the things she'd been seeing.  The problem was that Harry would be desperate for contact with his family, and Buffy was desperate to try and stop the spirits from speaking to her.

James disappeared and Buffy was left alone in the silent room, Harry's soft breathing the only indication that she wasn't alone.  

She stayed completely still for several moments.  She sighed with relief when the room stayed silent, and began walking towards the bed.

"_I love you_," a voice whispered.

Buffy stopped and turned, looking around the room to see who had spoken.

"_I try not to, but I can't stop._"

The words were far too familiar for her.  The voice belonged to the first man she'd fallen in love with, and the phrase was when Angel had first told her that he loved her.

"Stop it," Buffy whispered into the darkness.

"_This isn't some fairy tale.  When I kiss you, you don't wake up from a deep sleep and live happily ever after."_

"Stop it," she repeated, her voice slightly louder.

Buffy was looking into the darkened corners of the room, trying to see the owner of the voice.  She knew it was a cruel thought but she didn't want to see Angel.  She had her closure with him, and she didn't want to go back to the relationship that she'd had with the handsome vampire.  She was more than happy with Harry, but that didn't mean that the words being whispered weren't still having an effect on her.

"_Oh…god Buffy…I feel like I haven't seen you in months."_

"Stop it!" Buffy yelled.

Harry awoke with a start, instinctively reaching for his glasses.  He scratched at his forehead quickly, brushing his hair off his face as he raced towards his shaking girlfriend, quickly grabbing hold of her.  He was startled when Buffy tried to push him away from her.

"Buffy, stop," he said forcefully, trying to break through her haze of fear.  "It's just me!  It's Harry.  Buffy…Buffy, it's Harry."

Buffy finally stilled and let herself fall completely into Harry's arms.  The two teens collapsed to the ground, Harry rocking his girlfriend gently, whispering soothing words into her hair, trying to get her to calm down.

"What happened?  What did you see?"

"I didn't…I couldn't…I couldn't see him," Buffy whispered.  "I could hear him, but…"

"Who?  Hear who?" Harry asked.

"Angel.  And Jenny.  But I saw her.  And…and…_him_.  Your…your…"

"My what?" Harry prodded.

"Your father," Buffy admitted.

Harry inhaled deeply.  Out of everything he'd expected to hear, Buffy's statement had not been it.  

"You saw my father?" Harry asked, his voice clogging with emotion.

Buffy nodded and buried her face into Harry's chest.  

"Did you see my mum?" Harry asked.

Buffy shook her head.  "Only in my dream," she replied.  "But…it was bad.  The nightmares…they're…they're bad.  Worse than usual."

Harry pressed a kiss to Buffy's temple and continued rocking her slowly.  He was trying to wrap his mind around what his girlfriend had just told him.  On one hand, it was a little disturbing that Buffy had seen Harry's father, since James Potter had been dead for nearly seventeen years.  On the plus side, Harry had never had a chance to interact with his father, and the only times he'd even seen the man was in photographs, and in the Mirror of Erised in his first year at Hogwarts.

"What frightened you so badly?" Harry whispered.

"They're dead," Buffy replied sharply.  "Jenny and James and…and…and Angel.  But he's not…"

"You saw Angel?" Harry asked.

Buffy shook her head.  "I heard him though.  Saying things that he said to me…back in Sunnydale."

Harry sighed and held on to Buffy a little bit tighter.  He should have known that the quiet streak that he and Buffy had been having over the last week was too good to be true.  Something was always trying to come between them, and Harry was incredibly unhappy about it.

They sat in silence for several minutes before Harry pulled Buffy to her feet and led her over to the bed.  They lay down side by side, their arms and legs entwined.  Buffy sighed tiredly and closed her eyes, wishing she could drop off to sleep.

"What do you think they want?" Harry asked.  "The ghosts, I mean."

Buffy shrugged.  "So far…to freak me out."

"But…it's my dad.  I mean…I'd…I'd kill to see him.  It can't be that scary," Harry said.

Buffy couldn't bring herself to tell Harry what James had been saying about the two of them.  She couldn't let Harry know that James was adamant that Harry shouldn't be dating her, and she couldn't let Harry know that James Potter scared the hell out of her.

"No…no he's not that scary," Buffy replied softly.

Harry smiled and kissed Buffy's shoulder.  He closed his eyes, trying to imagine what it would be like to see his dad again.  

Buffy's eyes opened, and she stiffened slightly as she saw the silhouette of a figure standing at the end of their bed.  She'd seen enough of James Potter in the last day to recognise his outline.  She closed her eyes and when she opened them again, James was gone.

----

You guys rock!!  Thank you so much for your support and your feedback!  

Toodles.

DKG.


	10. The Research

CHAPTER TEN: THE RESEARCH

To say that the recurring appearances of James Potter and Jenny Calender was making Buffy worried was definitely an understatement.  She, like the Scooby she still was at heart, had headed towards the library and surrounded herself with books on ghosts and poltergeists and other such spirits.  She spent hours reading over the books trying to figure out why the ghosts were visiting her, and why they'd only ever appeared to her.  Harry was still holding out hope that James would visit him, but the Boy-Who-Lived hadn't seen hide-nor-hair of his deceased father.

Buffy however, kept seeing James at nearly every turn.  It had come to the point where she was more concerned if she _didn't_ see the man than if she did.  It was always interesting to try and predict which form of James she would see him as.  Often it was the seventeen-year-old version, looking so much like Harry, that the only real difference was their eye colour. 

Sometimes he appeared as the twenty-six year old who had died trying to protect his wife and son.  And other times, he appeared as an eleven-year-old First-Year.  But it was always the same message that he brought with him.  Stay away from Harry.  For a week straight, Buffy endured the visits, both day and night.  Sometimes the ghosts remained silent, other times they whispered words to her.  Sometimes they were visible and other times they were not.  

Buffy had found nothing in any of the books that she'd pulled off the shelves, much to her disappointment.  She'd found out a lot about ghosts, but each of the books concurred on the subject of their manifestation.  They had to either have stayed in the world after directly after their death, or they had to have been summoned.  And, considering Jenny's ghost seemed adamant about it being something that Buffy had done to cause their sudden haunting of the Slayer, Buffy knew it wasn't the latter.  She had never summoned spirits, and, now that she had experience with ghosts, she would never _ever_ try it.

She sighed and closed the book she'd been flipping through.  She replaced it to its shelf and slowly walked out of the library.  She began walking back up towards the Gryffindor Tower when she stopped suddenly at the sight of a very familiar ghost.  One that didn't scare her at all.

"Hello Sir Nicholas," Buffy greeted him.

The Gryffindor Ghost smiled and tilted his head in greeting.  

"Good evening Miss Summers," he replied.  "It is unusual to see you out and about without your cohorts."

Buffy shrugged and looked up at the floating ghost.

"Can I ask you something?" Buffy asked.

The ghostly Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington inserted a finger in the stiff ruff at his neck and tugged it a little straighter, apparently to give himself thinking time.  He desisted only when his partially severed neck seemed about to give way completely.

Sir Nicholas regarded her curiously.  He had often had students seek him out to ask him the question he was certain that Buffy was about to ask him.  But usually when he was asked, it was directly after someone had suffered a loss.  And, as far as Sir Nicholas knew, Buffy Summers hadn't lost anyone recently.

"You wish to ask me about why I am still here," Nicholas said.  "Why I still walk and talk within the Hogwarts walls, when so many others don't."

Buffy nodded.  "Something like that."

"You know that not everyone can come back as a ghost, do you not?" Nicholas asked.

Buffy nodded.  "Yeah, I get that.  What I don't get is why you stayed.  No offence or anything."

Nicholas chuckled slightly.  "None taken," he assured her.  "And it is only witches and wizards who are able to come back as ghosts.  No muggles are able to."

Buffy looked at him curiously.  "What about someone who was a gypsy?  Would they be able to come back as a ghost?"

Nicholas stroked his chin thoughtfully.  "Possibly, possibly," he replied.  "But, to return within Hogwarts grounds, you must be a benevolent spirit.  Not even the Bloody Baron is truly as frightening as many of the students believe him to be.  And to reside within Hogwarts grounds, you need to have attended the school."

With that information, Buffy could understand why James was staying around Hogwarts.  What she couldn't understand was why Jenny Calendar and Angel had been able to make appearances.

"What if it was someone who'd been dead for years?" Buffy asked.  "Like…say sixteen years or something?  Could they come back?"

Nicholas shook his head, reaching up to straighten his neck as his head nearly fell off at his action.

"After they've gone on, they do not return unless someone summons them.  And even then, they must wish to return," Nicholas explained.  "And to remain a ghost, you are giving up your chance to leave this…this half-existence."

Buffy sighed.  Sir Nicholas wasn't telling her anything that she didn't already know, but his information about ghosts residing in Hogwarts was definitely helpful.

He'd said that only benevolent ghosts could stay within the school.  Why then was James, Jenny and Angel's ghosts trying to make her insane?  And, for that matter, why was Angel's voice haunting her at every step when she knew that Angel had moved to LA, and was working with a half-demon named Doyle who received visions from the Powers That Be.

The fact that the ghosts that had been shadowing her for the last few days looked more solid than Sir Nicholas or the Bloody Baron, or any of the other Hogwarts ghosts also bothered Buffy.  She'd never taken the risk of actually touching any of the ghosts, but she was almost certain that they weren't corporeal.  They just looked solid.

"Thanks Sir Nicholas," Buffy said, disappointed that she hadn't found out more.

He tilted his head once more and floated away, drifting down the corridor and disappearing through a solid brick wall.

Buffy sighed and began walking towards the Entrance Hall, wishing for some fresh air.  She couldn't work out why this was happening _now_.  She was certain that she hadn't summoned the ghosts that were insisting that it was her who'd made them appear.  Then again, with the way her spells had been going wonky for the last few weeks, it could have been possible.  

She walked down a flight of stairs, and almost threw a punch at the person who grabbed her arm.  She relaxed slightly when she saw that it was Harry who'd stopped her.  Her calm state didn't last very long when she saw James Potter walking up the stairs in front of them.

"You shouldn't be around me Harry," Buffy said, her voice shaking.  "You're not meant to be here."

Harry looked at her, completely confused.

"Not meant to be where?" he asked.

"Anywhere near me," she replied.  "It's…it'll end badly."

Harry shook his head.  "Buffy, you're just stressed, that's all," the young man insisted.  "We should go and talk to Dumbledore about this.  I mean…if the whole ghost thing is bothering you that much.  Come on, we'll go together."

Buffy shook her head and pushed her way past him.  She called back up the stairs, over her shoulder to him.  "Stay away from me Harry.  For your own good."

She ignored Harry calling out her name in an attempt to stop her, and she kept walking down the stairs, going faster than Harry would have been able to walk in order for him to catch up to her.

She raced out the double doors, breathing in the fresh air of the outdoors.  Her feet automatically began taking her towards the Forbidden Forest, her mind not even registering where she was walking.  It was only when she hit the tree line that she noticed how far she'd walked.

She hesitated a moment, looking back up to the castle.  It was strange that there was hardly anyone outside, especially on a Saturday afternoon.  Then again, it was a Hogsmeade weekend, and most of the students had gone to the wizarding village.  Harry, Ron and Hermione had been in the library, researching for assignments that were last minute rushed jobs.  Or, in Hermione's case, she was getting ahead of her schoolwork.  But, Buffy had discovered that during her months of reading ahead, she'd researched the topic and had enough information to write the required essay for Professor McGonagall and had already finished it.

She'd spent an hour in the library with her three best friends before getting out of the library when she'd seen James stand behind Harry and lay a non-corporeal hand on her boyfriend's shoulder, Harry rubbing his forehead as he tried to think of something else to write on his essay.  She'd wigged and gone as far away from the room with the musty books as she could.  She idly wondered if Hermione and Ron had gone to se the Room of Requirement, leaving Harry to fend for himself when she'd seen him on the stairs of the Entrance Hall.

Buffy looked up at the cloudy sky, almost hoping that it _would_ rain for the evening.  She wasn't sure why, but she enjoyed patrolling in the rain.  There was something cleansing about the way the rain would wash away the vampire dust.

When Buffy was sure that no one had noticed her, she ducked into the Forest, letting the darkness camouflage her.  Even though she had express permission from Professor Dumbledore that allowed her to enter the Forbidden Forest at any time of the day, she knew it would cause problems if she allowed too many people to see her going in there.  It would arouse people's suspicions, and that was not something that Buffy wanted to do.

When the Forest had engulfed her, and Buffy could barely see the Hogwarts castle anymore, she began walking towards the clearing that she'd discovered during her nightly patrols.  It was a peaceful area, calm and gentle, a place that often soothed her fragile nerves.  She knew that after the previous week and the morning she'd just had, she would definitely need the peace that the clearing brought to her.

The clearing was, as it's name suggested, a clear area of the Forest.  It was a circular area, approximately seven metres in diameter.  In the centre, there was a stone tablet, resembling a headstone, but nowhere near as smooth as one crafted by magic or muggle means.  

Buffy perched herself on the stone, closing her eyes and allowing the peaceful area to work its magic.  She stared up at the cloudy sky and breathed in deep breaths of air.

"I'm surprised you found this place," a voice said, a tall figure coming out of the Forest towards her.

Buffy sighed, wishing her solitude hadn't been interrupted.  She looked towards the intruder and recognised her as the Hufflepuff girl who'd sat beside her at breakfast the day before.

"Not many people come here nowadays," the girl said.

"Why did you come here then?" Buffy asked.

The girl shrugged.  "It's peaceful here."

Buffy narrowed her eyes at the Hufflepuff girl.  She looked to be a Sixth-Year like herself, but there was something old about her eyes.

"Who are you?" Buffy asked.

"Just a girl," she replied.  

Buffy picked up a small stick and threw it at the girl, testing a theory.  The stick went directly through the girl, and Buffy knew without a doubt that this girl was another ghost.  

"Just a dead girl," the ghost said.

"From Hufflepuff," Buffy added.

The girl nodded.  "My daughter comes here.  But…I have to admit, I'm disappointed in her."

"Why's that?" Buffy asked.

"She's…she has been corrupted," the girl explained.  "By a friend of yours.  If it hadn't been for you, my daughter would be…_normal_.  She wouldn't be living in _sin_." 

"Look, whoever you are, I'm sure your daughter isn't living in sin, or whatever else you want to call it.  I don't even know who you're talking about."

"Tara," the girl replied, as though the answer was obvious.  "Tara Maclay.   It was you who introduced your friend Willow to her, and it was your influence with the girl that led her to leading an impure life."

Buffy rolled her eyes.  "Uh, hello!  We're not in the 1800's anymore.  It's the year 2000 now.  It's not sinful, it's not evil, and it's definitely not because your daughter met me.  Willow and Tara love each other, and if you really are Tara's mom, you should be happy that she found someone."  
  


Mrs Maclay glared at the Slayer and stepped forward.  Buffy looked up at her, somewhat thankful that the ghostly woman could do nothing to physically harm her.

"And, look, you know what?  I'm really not interested in anything else you have to say.  If you wanna rag on Tara, go and do it elsewhere.  She's my friend, and she and Willow are crazy about each other, so…just…sod off," Buffy said firmly.

Mrs Maclay laughed and bent down so that she was eye level with Buffy.  The close contact with the woman sent a shiver running up and down Buffy's spine.

"You think you know…what you are…what's to come.  You haven't even begun."

The words that James Potter had said to her only days ago made Buffy's hands shake, her eyes wide.  The ghost of Mrs Maclay shot out of sight and left Buffy alone in the middle of the clearing.  She wiped at the tears in her eyes and clenched her hands into fists.

She stayed within the safety of the clearing for several hours, playing over the conversations she'd been having with the multitude of ghosts over the last few days.  Night fell and Buffy finally stood up, scanning the darkness with her senses on full.  She sighed, realising that there was nothing in the darkness for her to kill, and having not had a decent fight in days, she knew that she was going to have to leave school grounds in order to find a decent fight.

She checked herself to ensure she had weapons, and, concentrating on her sister-Slayer, she apparated out of the Forest and appeared next to Faith.  Her eyes widened in surprise before she threw herself completely into the battle that raged around the other half of the Chosen Two.

----

Sorry for the lack of updates.  Been having troubles with this fic, mainly due to the fact that I've started a new crossover (again!)  So…if you have any suggestions on where you'd like this fic to go, toss 'em at me, and hopefully I'll be able to work out where the hell this fic is going.  I've written up to chapter 20, but it kinda just went downhill from there, so…yeah, help would be nice!

Many thanks for all your feedback and stuff!  

Toodles.

DKG.


	11. The Patrol

CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE PATROL

"We're surrounded!" Buffy yelled, punching one of the twelve vampires that had the two Slayers circled in.  

"You noticed that too?" Faith asked rhetorically, ducking a punch that a vampire sent her way.

The two Slayers fought ferociously, back-to-back, fighting with perfect synchronicity.  If their Watchers had been there, they'd have been proud of their two Slayers.

With five vampires dusted and seven to go, Buffy and Faith found themselves tiring.  The brunette Slayer had to admit that she was grateful to Buffy for 'popping' in, as it were, and she knew that without the blonde Slayer at her side, she wouldn't have made it out of the fight.

"Why are there so many?" Buffy yelled above the fighting.

"Beats the hell outta me!" Faith replied, staking another of the vampires that fought against them.

Lightening streaked across the sky, followed by a roll of thunder that echoed in the dark evening.  Rain began spitting down on the fight, the ground beneath them becoming muddy.  Buffy flicked her hair out of her eyes and fought even harder, the rain spurring her on.

Faith fought like a wild tiger, spinning, kicking and grunting at every opportunity.  

Their clothing clung to their bodies, and Buffy threw off the leather coat that was beginning to restrict her movements.  Her black t-shirt was immediately soaked through, and her skin was prickling with the cold.

The fight continued, lasting another twenty minutes before the vampires were gone completely and the two Slayers were seated on a nearby park-bench, their faces upturned to the sky as the down-pouring rain washed away the grime of the fight.  

"You hungry?" Faith asked breathlessly.

"Starved," Buffy replied.

------------------------

The two Slayers ran into a nearby all-night diner, shaking their wet hair out as they left the rain outside.  The owner of the shop looked up with disinterest as the two girls found a seat.  A bored waitress came to take their orders before leaving the two Slayers to skull their bottles of Coca-Cola.

"Shit that was fun!" Faith exclaimed.

Buffy grinned.  She couldn't deny that the fight hadn't been a rush.  Plus, fighting beside Faith had been a new and incredible experience.  There was something freeing about the way Faith fought and thought.  

"That is was," Buffy agreed.  

"God...before you showed up, I thought I was a goner."

"Good thing I got bored with my little Forest then," Buffy commented.

Faith grinned.  She'd seen the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts, and had even patrolled in there a few times for herself.  She couldn't imagine ever getting bored of the place that was crawling with centaurs and acromantulas and unicorns.  

Their orders of steak and fries arrived and the Slayers ate heartily, talking between bites, dissecting the fight and talking about their respective lives.  Buffy couldn't help but laugh at some of Faith's antics.  The story about the alligator and Faith was something that always made her laugh.

The rain stopped and the two Slayers ventured outside, breathing in the cool and fresh air.

"You still wired?" Faith asked.

"Yeah," Buffy replied.  "I could go another round…or six."

Faith chuckled.  "I thought you had your boy-toy for that."

Buffy laughed loudly.  "Yeah…he's great.  But…well, Slayer and all.  Wouldn't want to kill him or anything."

Faith grinned and shook her head.  "Is it true that you really got it on with a vampire?" Faith asked.

Buffy blushed and nodded.  "Yeah.  It's true.  He was good though.  He had a soul."

"Yeah, Red explained that to me, but I never really understood it," Faith said.  "But, hey…to each their own."

Buffy grinned and shook her head, the two Slayers wandering down the empty street.  They heard a clattering of a can coming from an alley, and they silently exchanged a glance before moving to the alley opening.  Buffy walked down first, stake in one hand, her wand in the other.  Faith followed behind her, trying to get her eyes to adjust to the sudden darkness of the poorly lit alleyway.

The clattering sounded again, and both girls froze in their tracks.  Silence reigned, and the Slayers began moving again.  Buffy didn't have time to even form a counter attack when she felt someone tackle her to the ground.

Buffy rolled into the attack, jumping to her feet.  Her stake had already plunged into the depths of her attackers heart before she could even fully register what her senses were telling her.  

"B, no!" Faith yelled frantically.

The man cried out in pain, and Buffy's stomach dropped.  There was no sudden telltale poof.  There was no tumble of dust in the wind.  Just the sick sound of her stake being withdrawn from bleeding flesh, and the man falling to the ground in pain, screaming for all he was worth.

Buffy dropped to her knees, the stake falling from her hands as she realised what she'd done.  Her attacker hadn't been a vampire.  Her attacker hadn't even been a demon.  It had been a human, and she'd plunged a stake into a man's heart.

"Shit," Faith whispered.  "We gotta call for help."

Buffy could barely see the man in the dim light, but she could tell by the way the man's breathing was slowing, and the dilating of his pupils that he was going to die before any help could come for him.

"_Lumos,_" Buffy muttered.  The alley lit up and Buffy winced.  She hadn't been wanting to create such a vast quantity of light.  The Lumos spell was mainly used for creating a small beam of light, but somehow she had made the entire alley feel as though it was entrenched in daylight.

Faith knelt beside her, shucking off her sweater and pressing it to the bleeding wound.  

"What do we do?" Faith whispered, her voice slightly shaking and panicked.  She knew the difference between killing a man and killing a demon.  There was no satisfaction in watching a human man die, no matter who it was.  And from the looks of it, the man that Buffy had inadvertently attacked was merely a homeless man who'd been worried for his own safety.

"_You've done me proud._" 

Buffy was muttering curses…that being swear words, not actual spells…under her breath.  She couldn't think properly and the voice whispering in the back of her head wasn't helping either.

"My Elizabeth.  I always knew you would follow the path I set for you." 

"B, come on, snap out of it!" Faith yelled.  "He needs help!"

Faith's words penetrated the haziness in Buffy's mind.  She forced herself to remember the healing spells that she'd researched over the last year and a half, and recalled one that would stem the bleeding of a wound.  She muttered the proper incantation while pointing the wand at the man's heart.  

The bleeding slowed, but the wound wasn't healing.  

"He needs proper treatment," Buffy said.

"We should get him to a hospital," Faith replied.

"_It killed Celia…"_

Buffy shook her head.  "There's not enough time."

It was stupid to even try it, and Buffy knew that she was setting herself up for exhaustion, but there were no other options.  She grabbed hold of the man's wrist, and took hold of Faith's hand as well.  Praying that it would work, she apparated, taking both Faith and the dying man through the impenetrable walls of Hogwarts and landing them all in the all too familiar infirmary.

Buffy quickly erected a small bubble that would make the space she'd apparated into completely silent to all outside observers.  She didn't want Madam Pomfrey bustling down from her quarters, and she definitely didn't want any of the students spending the evening in the infirmary beds to be awoken by the noise.

She tried to ignore the pounding headache that was building up behind her eyes, her strength waning as she used up too much of her power with the spells she'd been performing.  She hadn't been this tired since she took on the Dementor within the Ministry of Magic.  She breathed in deeply, trying to centre herself and her magic, trying to find a source of strength to draw upon.

Buffy quickly raided Pomfrey's cabinets of potions, locating the quicker healing potions that were always kept on hand.  She quickly forced them down the man's throat, ignoring his cry of pain as the potions worked their magic.  

"What did you give him?" Faith asked.

"Healing potion.  It'll expel the splinters in his chest and close up the wound." Buffy's reply was cold and clinical, and Faith couldn't help but notice how frightening it was to hear Buffy being so indifferent.

Buffy, on her part, was having a hard time not to have a complete breakdown.

"_Finish him off,_" a voice whispered.  "_It would be so easy._"

"Geez, that was easy," Faith commented.

"_Kill the spare…_"

"Got any of those potions to spare?" 

_ "You've done me proud."_

"And geez, no wonder Dominic's so damn proud of ya…god, if that'd been me who'd staked the guy…I wouldn't have had the first clue what to do."

Buffy couldn't take it any more.  She was exhausted from the past weeks events.  Talking with ghosts, and fighting with vampires, staking a man and apparating with two other people had sucked her energy out of her.  She was tired, cold and more than a little temperamental.  She looked up at Faith, her eyes dark and stormy.  Faith had to force herself not to take a step back at the look of coldness reflected in her sister Slayer.

"He should be fine," Buffy said.

Faith nodded.  She knew when she was getting the brush off, and she wasn't about to make a big deal out of it.  Especially not with the stormy look in Buffy's eyes.

"Think you could give me a ride home?" Faith asked.

Buffy nodded and grabbed Faith's hand.  Reaching into herself, she found a small well of power that hadn't yet been used.  She quickly apparated them into Faith's bedroom within Wesley's apartment.  Before Faith could even thank her, Buffy was gone once more.

"Geez that girl is moody," Faith whispered to herself in the darkness.

------------------------

Buffy looked down at the body of the man she'd staked earlier that evening.  The only sign that anything had even happened to the man was the massive blood stain on the front of his clothes.  There was blood on Buffy's hands as well, and she knew that it would take several coats of soap before the stains came off her hands.  The ring that Harry had given her was dangerously close to slipping off her cold fingers, and she placed it on the bedside table, her coat having come off earlier, and her pants having no pockets to place anything in.  She made a mental note to come back for it later.

She knew that the man couldn't stay at Hogwarts.  It would bring up too many questions that she didn't want to answer.  She gripped the healed man's hand and quickly apparated back to the alley that they'd disapparated from earlier.  Arranging him on the bed of rags and newspaper that he'd jumped out from earlier, she left him to his healing sleep.  She stepped back and stumbled slightly, tripping over her discarded stake.  She bent down to pick it up examining the wooden weapon carefully.  She could feel the blood coating the stake, and the tip of the sharpened weapon that had so easily slid into the man.

She looked down at his sleeping form, the stake itching to be used.

_"Finish it_.  _Make me proud…_"

She knelt beside the man, her fingers touching the ripped clothing.  She looked at the stake, wondering how easy it would be to end the miserable existence of the man before her.  He obviously had no family, no money and no real reason to continue living.  In fact, he probably would be thankful that she'd ended his life.

"_We shall rid our world of impure blood, and finally eradicate those whose births were not as Salazar Slytherin deigned them to be._"

The tip of her stake touched the man's chest and the sudden solidity of what she was about to do finally hit Buffy.  She fell backwards, landing hard on her backside.  The man's eyes fluttered open and he looked at her in fear.

"You…you did it.  You killed me," he whispered.

The familiar words hit Buffy hard.  She stood and pointed her wand at the man.  She didn't want to hear those words ever again.  Not from strangers, and not from her boyfriend.  The words 'Crucio' or 'Avada Kedavra' were on the tip of her tongue.  

"_Obliviate!"_ she yelled.

She turned and ran, knowing that the spell had worked.  She'd wiped the man's memory.  He wouldn't remember the first thing about the girl that had accidentally staked him.

When she'd run out of energy, she stopped and leant against a wall to keep herself from falling.  She tried apparating back to Hogwarts.  Nothing.  She sighed.  She knew that the last few days would wear her down eventually.  All she wanted to do was be back in her room, asleep in her bed, but now she was stuck in muggle London, with blood on her clothes and on her hands.  

Buffy closed her eyes and let her focus wander inwards, searching through herself to find any source of power that she could use.  In the depths of her soul, in a place she'd never consciously tried to touch before, she found her power.  It was the same power that had aided her in using the Killing Curse against Voldemort.  It was the same place that the Dementor's darkness had taken residence in when Buffy had drained the Dementor of its strength only nine days ago.  And it was from that power well, the darkest place of her soul, that she was able to apparate away from London, and away from the man who now had no memory of being attacked, thanks to her.

She disapparated with a loud crack and apparated into a dark and dusty building, the closest she could get to Hogwarts, whose barriers would not let her enter when she was so drained of her magic.  She barely had a chance to look around before falling onto a filthy mattress and closing her eyes.

The wind blew in the window of the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade, the floorboards creaking and the pipes groaning.  Buffy curled up on the abandoned four-poster bed with dusty hangings that had been shredded to pieces long ago.  Closing her eyes, she finally succumbed to the oblivion that was sleep, bloody stake still clutched tightly in her hand.

In the corner of the Shrieking Shack, a tall figure stepped out of the shadows and crouched beside the sleeping Slayer.  He brushed a ghostly hand against Buffy's cheek that was still coated with dirt, grime and blood.  

"_My beautiful child of darkness_," he whispered, a proud smile tinging his lips.  He stepped back and watched Buffy fall into a dream-filled sleep.

-----

Creepy, no?

Grrr at ff.net.  Still wanting to know why my account was locked dammit.  What did I do?!  

Anyways, many thanks for your feedback and stuff, you guys are awesome!  
Toodles.

DKG.


	12. The Theory

Chapter Twelve: The THEORY

When morning came, the rain was still falling, and Buffy slept on, completely unaware of anything around her.  Her dreams were plagued with things of darkness, a combination of the dream she'd had where she'd killed Harry, and of the events of the evening before in the alley with the homeless man.  She tossed and turned in her sleep, but did not awaken, staying instead with the darkness of her dream world.

Back at Hogwarts, the students rose, grumbling at the weather that would ruin their Hogsmeade Sunday outing.  The students went down to breakfast, and as Harry, Ron and Hermione sat down, they noticed their missing friend.

"Where's Buffy?" Harry asked, his eyes narrowing with worry.

Hermione shook her head and shrugged.  "She was already gone when I woke up," Buffy's roommate explained.

Harry paused for a moment.

"She was already gone?  Or she never came back?" Harry asked, his voice quiet and deathly serious.

Hermione and Ron both paled at the implied suggestion.

"You don't think…" Hermione trailed off uncertainly.

Harry swallowed hard.  It wasn't something that he enjoyed thinking about, but it had been in his thoughts more and more since Buffy had been Called as the Slayer.  He knew that one day, Buffy wouldn't return at night.  She would be killed in battle, and he didn't even want to imagine what his life would be like after that.

"But…but, she's the Slayer," Ron whispered.  "She _can't_ die.  She's…she's Buffy."

"Maybe she's in _your_ room," Hermione said.

Harry looked thoughtful before nodding and standing up, abandoning his half-eaten piece of toast.  "I'm going to check it out.  If Professor Giles comes down, ask him if he's seen her.  Maybe she just went to train or something."

"She usually tells us before she leaves though," Hermione pointed out.  "Especially in the morning.  It's not like her to be careless like that."

"You don't think maybe it's to do with those ghosts of hers?" Ron asked, chewing on a piece of bacon.  "She's been on about them for days.  If you ask me, she's gone bonkers."

"She's not crazy," Harry said angrily.  "She's…she saw my dad.  Described him to me in perfect detail, and…and she'd never seen a picture of them before, so…so it can't be a lie.  Besides, she _wouldn't _make something like that up."

Ron just shrugged and continued eating.  Harry rolled his eyes and stalked out of the Great Hall.  Just as he reached the Entrance Hall, he ran into a familiar person with white-blonde hair, wearing a similar expression of concern.

"You're looking for Buffy aren't you?" Draco asked.

Harry nodded.  Draco sighed, wondering how it was possible for his cousin to get into so much trouble.

They checked the Room of Requirement, the library, and Buffy's room searching for any clues.  Harry sighed and knew of one more place that Buffy may have ended up after a patrol.

"Come on," Harry said, Draco following behind him.

They walked down the corridors until they came to the door to the infirmary.  Breathing in deeply, thye walked inside and came to a halt at the sight in front of him.

Madam Pomfrey was gesticulating wildly as she spoke to a very concerned Professor Dumbledore.  Neither Draco nor Harry could hear a word of what they were saying even though it looked as though Pomfrey was yelling.  They were standing beside a bed that had blood staining the sheets, empty bottles of potions lining the table beside the hospital bed.

Harry stepped forward slightly to make himself known, and Dumbledore turned to look at the Gryffindor and Slytherin students.  Harry saw Dumbledore say his name, but again, he couldn't hear the Headmaster.  His eyebrows furrowed in confusion and he absently rubbed at his forehead as Professor Dumbledore stepped away from the bed.

"Harry, Draco…you look like men with a mission," Dumbledore commented.

Harry nodded.  "We're looking for Buffy."

"Ahh…yes, that would explain it," Dumbledore said, stroking the length of his beard.   "Professor Giles is also conducting his own search for Miss Summers.  She seems to have…well, vanished."

Harry felt his heart sink.  It was one thing to _think_ that his girlfriend was missing, but another thing entirely to have Dumbledore confirm it.

"Can't that girl go a week without being taken?" Draco asked.

"We do believe that she was here last night though.  Or very early this morning," the Headmaster said.  "The spell holding the bubble of silence over this bed is…incredibly strong.  Not something that any of our other students could have erected within an evening.  And none of the Professors have any knowledge of it.  Plus…we also found this."

Dumbledore handed Harry a white gold ring with three diamonds encrusted in it.  The ring that Harry had given to Buffy on their one-year anniversary.  Buffy had definitely been there earlier.  He looked over the ring carefully, his heart pounding furiously as he saw the blood stains on it.  He polished it against his robes and slid it into his pocket.

Draco's attention had been caught by something in Dumbledore's last statement though.

"Bubble of silence?" Draco repeated.  "Why would she need that?"

"We do not know," Dumbledore replied sadly.  "We also wish to know why Buffy did not call for Madam Pomfrey when she arrived back on school grounds.  And why she would have used such a potent healing potion, and not stay in the infirmary afterwards."

"She hates hospitals," Harry murmured.

"True, true…but, logically she should have stayed within school grounds.  Why she would leave is a little beyond my imagination," Dumbledore said.

Harry frantically tried to think of any reason that Buffy would want to leave Hogwarts.  He couldn't think of anything, and the more he tried to think of reasons, the more worried he became about her.  The pain in his forehead was more pronounced than before, though nowhere near as painful as it had been when he'd awoke after having nightmares of Voldemort several years back.

Dumbledore looked at him in concern.

"Are you alright?  Is it your scar?" the Headmaster asked.

Harry continued rubbing at his head.  "I don't understand it.  It…it shouldn't be hurting like this.  You said the scar would only hurt whenever Voldemort was either close by or really angry, and…well, he's dead.  We made sure of that.  You swore that he couldn't come back!"

Harry's voice was rising with panic and fear, and Dumbledore placed a calming hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Voldemort is not alive, I assure you of that," Dumbledore said. 

"But my scar…it's been…well, it's not as painful as it was a few years back, but…it keeps stinging a little," Harry admitted.

"Hmm…I do have a theory about that.  The recurrence of the pain regardless of Voldemort being dead," Dumbledore said.

Harry nodded eagerly, desperate for any theories that would explain the oddity.

"I believe the answer is very simple.  Your connection to Voldemort through your scar was passed on to his only blood relative," Dumbledore said.  "But, rather than being a warning, your scar is picking up on Buffy's emotions."

"But…sometimes it's been hurting when we've just been sitting there doing nothing," Harry said, completely confused.  "Like yesterday in the library."

"Hmmm," Dumbledore said thoughtfully.  "And what happened just after your scar hurt?"

Harry cast his mind back to the day before.  He hadn't even connected the two occurrences, and now that he thought about it, the answer was fairly simple.  

"She left," Harry stated.  "She got up and left the library.  But…what emotions am I picking up on?"

Dumbledore shook his head.  There were many things he understood in the world.  The mind of an eighteen-year-old girl was not one of them.

"That is something I cannot answer for you.  Unless there was a reason that she left the library…something that happened that no one else but Buffy noticed," Dumbledore theorised.

Harry's eyes lit up.  "The ghosts!" he yelled triumphantly.

Dumbledore's eyes widened.  That was not something he'd been expecting to hear.  "Pardon?"

"Buffy's been seeing ghosts.  Of my dad and some woman named Jenny.  And of…of Angel," Harry said.  "She…she said they were scaring her, but…but I couldn't understand why a ghost of my father would be that scary."

Dumbledore was now definitely concerned.  The Hogwarts ghosts were very seldom invisible, and Dumbledore knew of every single ghost, ghoul and poltergeist that haunted the Hogwarts grounds.  Hearing that James Potter was visiting was something that Dumbledore knew would not bring good news.

"What about other times when your scar ached?" Dumbledore asked.

Harry went into a thoughtful silence, searching his memory for the incidents where he had absently rubbed his forehead.  He hadn't noticed it as the pain hadn't been mind-numbing.  It had been a gentle reminder that something was wrong, but Harry had ignored it, thinking it nothing more than a headache.

"It woke me up the other night," Harry said.  "But…I hadn't had a nightmare so I ignored it."  He paused for a moment, trying to remember what had happened the morning after.  His eyes lit up in discovery.  "But when I spoke to Buffy that morning, she said that she hadn't slept well.  She said she was going crazy."

Dumbledore was now truly worried.  While he knew that the American girl had a penchant for using hyperbolic words to describe her moods, the Headmaster also knew that the Slayer may not have been exaggerating her state of mind.  And, for someone who was as powerful as Voldemort's daughter, and the Chosen One, it did not bode well for anyone.

"If your scar is hurting now, then chances are it is reacting to Buffy's emotions.  Seeing as we've come up with fear being the link, it does not instil confidence in my heart," Dumbledore said.

"How can we find her though?" Draco asked, rejoining the conversation.  "I mean…would a locator spell work on her?  The Wiccan variety.  I know they require a connection to whoever you're trying to find, but…well, who's more connected to Buffy than Potter or I?"

Dumbledore looked at the young Slytherin, impressed with the logical thinking.

"Yes.  Summoning the goddess Aradia will usually lead you to the person you wish to find.  I would not suggest doing so with your nerves as frazzled as they are though," Dumbledore said.

Harry groaned.  He didn't know how Dumbledore expected him to calm down.  He'd been told that his scar was hurting because Buffy was afraid of something, and that did very little to calm him down.

Harry sighed and tightened his grip on the ring that Dumbledore had handed Harry earlier.  He could feel his chewed-off fingernails biting into his skin, the pain grounding him in reality, giving him something else to concentrate on.  

Dumbledore stepped back towards the bed, once again looking at the blood stains that marred the white sheets.

Harry closed his eyes and focussed his energies on the ring in his hand.  

"Aradia, Goddess of the lost, 

The path is murky, the woods are dense,

Darkness pervades, I beseech thee,

Bring the light."

Dumbledore spoke Harry's name, but, being inside the bubble that Buffy had created, Harry didn't hear him.  A small green light appeared in the air and circled Harry's head.

He looked at it, thankful that the spell had worked.  He hadn't been certain that he'd remembered the correct wording of the spell, but he was thankful that he'd spent several hours researching Wiccan spells with Buffy and Draco over the last few months.

"Take me to Buffy," he whispered to the green light.

The green light danced in front of him and began zipping out of the infirmary and down the corridor.  Harry and Draco raced to follow it, Dumbledore on his tail.  

They bumped into Giles, and after a very brief explanation, the DADA Professor was running to keep up with the Boy-Who-Lived, the former Slytherin Prince and Professor Dumbledore.  They were lead down a flight of stairs and the light danced in a spot halfway down the third floor corridor, the light flitting around the statue of the one-eyed witch.  Harry withdrew his wand, recognising the statue from his third-year exploits.  "_Dissendium_."

The statue's hump opened wide enough for Harry to fit through, and he hoisted himself into the hole headfirst.  He slid down a stone side then landed on cool damp earth.  

Several seconds later, Draco, Giles and Dumbledore landed just behind him.  Harry didn't even want to know how the Professors had fit through the fairly small trap door within the statue.

"Dare I ask how you know the password to this particular passageway?" the Headmaster asked.

Harry shrugged in the darkness.  "Probably best for us all if I didn't tell you."

Dumbledore chuckled, and the two of them followed the green light, which illuminated the otherwise dark corridor.  They walked through the passage, twisting and turning and nearly stumbling on the uneven floor.  Dumbledore felt the magic of Hogwarts recede and he stopped Harry by tugging on the sleeves of the boys robe.

"We can apparate from here," Dumbledore said.

Harry was thankful for that reprieve.  He remembered the several hundred stairs at the end of the passageway, and he had no desire to climb them when all he wanted to do was see his girlfriend.

Giles and Dumbledore apparated them into the middle of the Hogsmeade street, the green light taking a moment to work out that they'd disappeared.  The guiding light appeared in front of them before taking them up a winding path towards a run down house on the outskirts of the village.  

"The Shrieking Shack," Harry whispered.

"Indeed," Dumbledore replied, the four wizards quickening their pace to get up to the dilapidated old building.  

----

Sorry for the lateness in updating.  Real life sucks sometimes.  Well, no assignments suck.  Thanks heaps for your continued support and feedback!  You're all very cool!

Toodles.

DKG.


	13. The Shack

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE SHACK

The house was silent as they approached.  Dumbledore aimed his wand at the boarded up front door.  "_Diffindo!_"  The boards covering the door split apart, and the Headmaster and Student walked into the dark front entrance of the house, the floorboards creaking with every step.  

The green guiding light flew up the stairs, and Harry and Draco followed, carefully watching the steps to make sure they didn't fall through the rotted wooden boards.  Giles walked quickly behind, desperately worried about the girl he considered a daughter.  He'd known that she'd been upset for the past week, and hearing from Professor Dumbledore and Harry about the fact that Buffy had been seeing ghosts was not comforting to him.  Buffy hadn't told him of any of it, and he couldn't understand why he'd been left in the dark about it.  Then again, after hearing Harry say Jenny Calendar's name, he somewhat understood Buffy's desire for a little caution.  

The light led them up to a locked room.  Dumbledore muttered another spell and the door came off its hinges and dropped to the floor.  Harry wasted no time in entering, racing into the darkened room.

He saw his girlfriend curled on the bed, her body shaking.  He couldn't see well enough to work out if it was from cold, or from tears.  Dumbledore lit the room with a spell, and Harry gasped loudly as he finally saw his girlfriend properly.

Her white shirt was covered in grime, her hands still encrusted with the dried blood.  She was gripping onto a stake that was covered in blood, and Harry could see the tear tracks that ran across her face.

Harry moved his hand, about to shake his girlfriend, but Giles caught Harry's wrist before he could touch her.  Harry looked questioningly at the Professor, but Giles just shook his head in a warning.

Dumbledore pointed his wand at the sleeping girl.  "_Enervate,_" he murmured.

Buffy stirred, her eyes taking in her surroundings.  She jumped to her feet, stake raised, ready to attack anyone who came at her.  Harry looked at her with wide and frightened eyes.  He'd never seen Buffy go into Slayer mode so quickly, and it was a frightening sight to see.

"Buffy, you must calm yourself," Dumbledore said, his voice soft and melodic.  "We're not here to harm you."

"_That's all they've ever done,_" a silky and sinister voice whispered.  "_They've only ever caused trouble.  Wasn't it easier before you met them?  Wasn't it easier when none of them were in your life?_"

Buffy shook her head, trying to get rid of the voices.  They'd plagued her all night long, invading her dreams and terrorising her at every waking moment. 

"Buffy," Giles whispered.  "Whatever you're hearing…they're not real."

"_We are though, aren't we?"_ the voice asked.  "_We're always here.  We know what you're thinking…what you're feeling.  We can make things better for you…those measly humans…what do they know?"_

"Buffy, please," Harry said, a single tear sliding down his cheek.  He'd never seen his girlfriend looking so completely forlorn.  He was reminded of a skittish cat.  "Please, you have to trust us."

Buffy's eyes widened as she saw Lily and James Potter appear behind Harry, each of them resting a hand on the boy's shoulder.  

"_Wasn't it enough that your father killed Lily and I?" _James whispered.  "_Why are you going to kill my son as well?_"

"Going to?" Buffy whispered.

Within the blink of an eye, Buffy saw a spitting image of herself ram a stake through Harry's heart.  It was the exact same move, footing, speed, accuracy as what Buffy herself had done to the man in the alley the evening before.

"Buffy come with us," Draco said softly.

But Buffy was more concerned with the image of herself trying to attack Harry.

"No!"

She lunged at Harry, trying to protect him from…herself really.  But she went straight through her doppelganger and into Harry, her fist striking Harry's cheek.  Harry fell to the ground with the force of the blow, and he clutched at his cheek, thankful that Buffy hadn't broken his jaw.

Dumbledore aimed his wand at Buffy.

"_Stupefy!_"

The spell did nothing to the Slayer, the jet of light that shot from Dumbledore's wand touched Buffy, before seeping into her skin, but having no effect whatsoever.  

"_He'll never forgive you,_" Jenny Calendar's ghost whispered, standing behind Giles who looked as though he was itching to grab Buffy, trying to restrain her.  The Professor knew however that he had no chance against Buffy and would end up being injured.

The ghost disappeared only to reappear with Angelus on the other side of the room.  Angelus grabbed Jenny by the throat and quickly twisted her neck, Jenny dropping to the ground with a sick thump.

"No!"

"_He'll never love you like I love you,_" Angelus whispered.

The ghostly vampire began stalking forward, stopping in front of Giles, but keeping his attention on Buffy, his back to the Professor.  Harry stood up, moving to stand about two feet away from Giles, keeping his eye on his girlfriend the entire time.  Draco had absolutely no clue what was happening to his cousin, but the sight of her with unfocused eyes, and looking so unkempt was enough to make him incredibly worried.

"_Just like you'll never love him like you love me."_

Buffy reached behind her to grab her spare stake.  In her hand, it transfigured into a loaded crossbow, and Buffy pointed it squarely at Angelus' heart.

Dumbledore was beginning to get worried about what he could sense from the Slayer in front of him.  He'd often been able to sense the power that she possessed, but never before had it been so dark…so tainted.  It was worrying him, and he could only wonder what it was that had caused such a drastic change in the girl.  

"I don't love you," Buffy whispered softly.

Giles was frozen in his tracks, thinking the words were meant for him.  His whole world seemed to collapse with those few words.  

"Rupert," Dumbledore warned.

Before Giles could move, Buffy's finger pulled the trigger and the crossbow bolt went flying.  Dumbledore aimed his wand at the DADA Professor and cast a protective barrier around the man.  

What Dumbledore failed to foresee though, was that the protective barrier shouldn't have been cast at the Professor at all.

Harry, with reflexes that he'd honed from years of Quidditch, saw the flight of the arrow and shoved Giles out of the way, the Professor falling to the ground.  The bolt hit Harry's shoulder, and the Boy-Who-Lived went crashing to the dusty floor.

Buffy's eyes went wide as she saw the exact same scene that she'd seen in her dream only a week before.  Harry, lying on the ground, with a crossbow bolt embedded in his shoulder.  Blood was pouring from the wound and Harry was reaching towards her with a bloodied and trembling hand.

She dropped to her knees at his side, her fingers touching the bolt that protruded from Harry's chest.  Buffy felt a shiver run down her spine and she turned to look up at the proud smile of a twenty-year-old Voldemort.

"_You've done me proud._"

----

Ooo, short chapter.  Glad you guys are still reading this little epic *grins*.  Many thanks for all your feedback and support.

Toodles.

DKG.


	14. The Blood

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE BLOOD

Both Dumbledore and Giles knelt beside Harry, Giles trying to pry Buffy's fingers away from the bolt that stuck out from Harry's chest, but failing to even catch Buffy's attention.  Draco hovered worriedly behind them, hoping that the Gryffindor boy would be alright.  Dumbledore could see that Harry needed help, sooner, rather than later, and that help was not on its way.  He needed to get the Slayer away from the injured boy before anything could happen though, and he knew that that task would be almost impossible.

He raised his wand and aimed it at Buffy.  As much as he didn't want to use a spell on a student, he knew that it was needed.  There was too much dark magic emanating from the girl and he could sense that with a little more time, she would give in to it completely.

"_Petrificus Totalus_," he murmured.

Almost absently, Buffy waved her hand in front of the jet of light that burst from the Headmaster's wand.  She swatted it away as though it was nothing more than an annoying insect, and the curse bounced back toward Dumbledore. 

"_Protego!"_

The curse bounced away from the Headmaster and hit the wall of the shack.  

"Buffy, he needs treatment," Giles said frantically.

"_He doesn't think you're good enough_," Voldemort whispered in her ear.  "_He doesn't trust you._"

Harry was clutching at his shoulder, pale and shaking from the pain.  He looked up at his girlfriend, worried for himself and for Buffy as well.  He should have paid more attention to how badly the ghosts had been affecting her, but he'd shut it out, preferring to think of the ghost of his father as a kind and caring spirit.

"Buffy," Harry whispered.

Two feet away from Harry, an image suddenly appeared for Buffy's eyes only.  Angel with a sword sticking through his chest being sucked into a portal, his arm outstretched, whispering her name in the same way that Harry had just done.  Pain, betrayal, fear and love, all rolled into two syllables.

Buffy blinked hard, trying to get rid of the memory.  

"_I told you to stay away from him,_" James Potter whispered, tears rolling down his cheeks.

"_You killed him_," Lily Potter said, her green eyes identical to Harry's.  It was the pain and hatred in those eyes that made Buffy scramble backwards, away from Harry.  

Giles and Dumbledore quickly moved towards the fallen teenager, Dumbledore casting a healing spell to stem the bleeding, and to extract the arrow from Harry's shoulder.  

When Giles saw that Harry was in capable care, he edged towards Buffy, trying not to startle the girl who seemed to be in a world of her own.

"Buffy…please, you must listen to me," Giles said, his voice gentle and quiet.  "Whatever they're saying, you mustn't listen."

Buffy shook her head, tears rolling down her cheeks.  "I killed him," she whispered.

"He's going to be alright," Giles assured her.  "But what Harry needs right now is for you to come back to the school with us.  He needs more treatment than we can give him, and he needs for you to be there as well."

"No," Buffy replied, her voice losing its tremble.  "He needs me to stay away from him."

"Is that what the ghosts are telling you?" Giles asked.  "Are they telling you to stay away?"

"Telling me that it was meant to happen," Buffy said.  Giles could tell by the faraway look in the Slayer's eyes that she wasn't quite aware of what was happening.  He was fairly certain that she was in shock.  "I was meant to kill him.  That's what I was made for…the darkness."

Giles looked to Dumbledore, who was helping Harry into a sitting position.  

"He needs more help than I can give him here," Dumbledore said.  

Giles nodded.  "Perhaps it would be best if you and Harry were to apparate as close to Hogwarts as you can manage."  
  


"Don't return without Buffy," Dumbledore said. 

Giles nodded, and with a loud crack, Dumbledore and Harry had disappeared, leaving Giles, Draco and Buffy alone.

Buffy had curled her legs up to her chest, her arms locked around her knees as she rocked slightly back and forth.

"Buffy, is there anyone else here with us?" Giles asked, looking around the room, trying to see the ghosts that Buffy was hearing.

Buffy looked up and around the room.  She couldn't see them, but she knew that there was someone else there with the.  It was rare that she was given a moment of peace.  She squinted into a dark corner and saw the ghost of Voldemort leaning casually against a wall.

"Yes," Buffy replied softly.

"Who?  Where?"

Buffy pointed to the shadows, and Giles squinted, but still saw nothing.  "Who is it?"

"My father," Buffy answered.  "He…he says that I was born for the darkness.  That I was always meant to follow the path that he'd made for me."

"I don't believe that," Giles said firmly.  "Do you remember your first day in Diagon Alley?"

Buffy looked at her guardian sharply, the seemingly random question making her pay attention.  She nodded, remembering the overwhelming day all too well.

"Do you remember what I said to you after you got your wand from Ollivander?" he asked.

Buffy cast her mind back.  All she could remember was Ollivander's words to her.  "_Nothing but darkness._" That was all her wand was good for, and all she could ever hope to achieve.

Giles could see the internal struggle happening within his young charge.  He took hold of one of Buffy's hands, trying to ground her to the solid realm.

"I told you that it was our actions that defined who we are," Giles said.  "It doesn't matter where we come from.  It's what we do with the time we are given that counts."

Buffy took a moment to let Giles' words sink in.  What he was saying made sense.  And he was right.  She looked up at him, feeling the world shift back into its rightful place.  Before she had a chance to say anything though, she saw a flash of herself thrusting a stake into a random person's heart, and the blood pouring out onto her clothes.  She looked down at herself, at the blood that belonged to the man she'd accidentally staked the night before, and Harry's blood covering her as well.

"What we do?" Buffy repeated.  "I killed a man last night."

Giles fell silent.  Draco's mouth fell open in complete shock.  Out of every scenario they had imagined, the sentence being uttered by Buffy had not been one of them.

"He's alive, but…I staked him.  With my stake.  The blood on my hands, on my clothes…it's his.  I apparated him back to Hogwarts, fixed him up.  I took him back to the alley, and…and I obliterated his memory.  I left him there," Buffy said.  Her entire speech was monotone, her voice cold and clinical as she explained what had happened the evening before.

"Buffy…"

"I keep seeing it Giles," Buffy said, her voice shaky as she admitted to the visions.  "I keep seeing myself attacking people."

"Seeing it?" Giles asked.  "In your mind?"

Buffy shook her head.  "In front of me.  She…I attacked Harry.  Before.  She tried to stake him."

Giles' eyes widened with realisation.  "You tried to attack _her_," he said.

Buffy nodded.  

"You told someone you didn't love them," Giles prompted.  "Who were you speaking to?"

"Angel…Angelus.  I don't know.  One of them.  Both of them maybe.  He said I didn't love Harry.  That I would love Harry as much as I loved him," Buffy explained.  

Giles breathed a sigh of relief.  Buffy's statement of not loving him hadn't been directed at him at all.  He felt somewhat better about that, though he was still deeply worried by the visions that buffy was seeing.

"Who else do you see?  The ghosts?"

"Mostly James.   Voldemort.  Lily, Jenny, Angel, Angelus…Tara's mom," Buffy replied.  "And me." 

Giles swallowed hard.  He'd known that Buffy had seen Jenny Calendar, but hearing it from Buffy herself was slightly different.  He was trying to think of any possible reasoning for Buffy's visions, but was coming up blank.

Buffy looked up and saw the look of concern and thoughtfulness on Giles' face.

"I've researched for a week straight Giles," she told him.  "I haven't found anything to explain it."

He sighed.  He should have known that Buffy would look into it.  

"Will you come back to Hogwarts with us?" he asked.  

"_You can do even more damage there,_" Voldemort said softly, stepping out of the shadows.  "_It would be the perfect opportunity."_

Buffy looked at her Watcher and shook her head.  She didn't want to hurt anyone, but she'd just proven how dangerous she really was.  A Slayer and a witch who was seeing things that weren't really there was a dangerous combination.

"I can't go back," Buffy whispered.  "Not now.  Not after I hurt Harry."

"Buffy, it was an accident," Draco said gently.  "Harry will know that as well."

"I'd only hurt him more," Buffy argued.  "And I won't do that again."

"I won't let you stay here by yourself," Giles said firmly.

She looked up at him, her expression set with determination.

"You can't stop me," she replied.

Giles sighed.  He knew that Buffy was right about that.  There was nothing he could do to restrain her.  She was stronger than he was, both magically and physically.  Not even Dumbledore would be strong enough to try and restrain her.

"Buffy, please…you've tried isolating yourself from your friends before.  It's never bought you anything but grief," Giles said gently.

"_Stay away from Harry_," James Potter whispered, his cold eyes boring into hers.

Buffy glared at the ghost and hated the fact that something incorporeal could make her so weak and defenceless.  She hated the hold that the ghosts had over her.  She'd been making a point not to listen to the ghost of James Potter, and so, she breathed in deeply and took hold of Draco and Giles' hands, apparating the three of them away from the Shrieking Shack and into the Hogwarts infirmary.  

In the shadows of the Shrieking Shack, the ghostly figure of Voldemort scowled angrily.  Its plans had not succeeded, and now It would have to work even harder to complete the first phase.  It had been so close to success, but now there was more work to be done.  Its chosen dark champion would still be swayed to the side of darkness, whether Buffy Summers wanted it or not.  There was no way that It would give up when It was so close.

The ghost disappeared from the Shack and settled itself invisibly into the shadows of the infirmary, watching as Buffy watched over a sleeping Harry.  Buffy shivered slightly as a cold chill ran up and down her spine.  She looked over her shoulder, her gaze settling on the exact spot where It was watching her.  It remained invisible, but Buffy could sense it watching her.  She glared before turning her attention back to Harry and trying to ignore the feeling of evil that permeated the air around her.

It smiled evilly and was content to sit back and watch, just letting Its presence effect Buffy.  Even if It just put her on guard and made her uneasy, It was content to do so.  All night It waited in the darkness, watching intently as Buffy sat watch over a quickly healing Harry.

----

Like I'd kill Harry off.  Hehe…it's tempting tho…mainly cos I've been re-reading OotP…he's so damn moody in that book…makes me wanna kill him off.  Have no fear, I'm not gonna kill him…or I don't think I will at least.  *grins*

Glad you guys are still following this thing.  Many thanks for all the feedback!

Toodles.

DKG.


	15. The Father

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: THE FATHER

Harry awoke slowly, blindly reaching across to the bedside table to grab his glasses and put them on.  His eyes adjusted quickly and he looked around the infirmary, sighing in relief when he saw Buffy curled in the chair beside him, her eyes closed and her breathing deep and even.  He leant his weight on his elbow and just stared at the sleeping girl thoughtfully.

Before Buffy had fallen asleep, she'd found the ring that Harry had given her on the dressing table beside the bed.  She guessed that someone had given it to Harry, who had pocketed it, and she'd spent the better part of the evening just fiddling with the ring.  "_Now everyone knows that you're mine._"  She hadn't placed it back on her finger, not entirely certain that she deserved to still be called Harry's at all.  So, as she slept, she clutched tightly at the ring, the white-gold band pressing into her skin and leaving a circular indentation.

Draco had volunteered to stay with them, but Buffy had firmly told him to finish his assignments and get some sleep.  He'd told her that if she needed anything then all she needed to do was to ask for it.

Harry was trying to work out what exactly had happened the day before.  He'd never seen Buffy look so upset or so dishevelled before.  Her clothes were still covered in dried blood, but Harry instinctively knew that the blood hadn't been hers.  Which begged the question, who did it belong to?  Some of it was his, he was sure of it, but he just didn't know who else's blood was staining Buffy's clothes and hands.

Whatever had happened before he, Dumbledore and Giles had found the Slayer in the Shrieking Shack must have been bad.  He was tempted to wake his girlfriend to ask her, but he knew that she hadn't been sleeping properly in the last week.

"_Hullo Harry,_" a voice whispered from behind him.

He flipped over in bed, half expecting it to be Hermione or Ginny or even one of the female Professors.  What he saw instead shocked him completely.  His breath caught in his throat and his heartbeat increased.

"Mum?" he whispered.

Lily Potter nodded and stepped forward, running fingers that Harry couldn't feel across the teenage boys cheek. 

"_I'm glad you're alright,_" she said, smiling softly.  "_Your father and I were so worried about you._"

"You…you were watching?" Harry asked incredulously.

Lily laughed lightly and nodded.  "_Of course we were watching.  You're our son_."

Harry felt tears prick his eyes.  This was what he'd wanted for the last week, ever since Buffy had admitted to seeing the ghosts of his parents.  He'd wanted to see them for himself, and now that he was seeing them, he couldn't understand why Buffy had been so terrified.

"Where's dad?" Harry asked.

"_Watching_," Lily replied.  "_I wanted to speak to you myself for a while._"

Harry nodded, just grateful for even one of his parents to appear to him.  It was strange.  Ever since he'd been at Hogwarts, all anyone would ever tell him was how much like his father he was.  No one had ever said anything to Harry about his mother, except that Harry had her eyes.  But nothing more.  He found himself curious about what type of a person his mother had been.

Harry noticed that Lily's gaze shifted across the room to Buffy, who shifted uneasily in her chair, still deeply asleep.  Harry followed Lily's gaze and smiled involuntarily as he saw his girlfriend.

"_I know you love her, Harry,_" Lily said softly, moving around the room to stand behind Buffy's chair.  Lily's hand rested against Buffy's shoulder, the Slayer's hair moving slightly with an invisible wind, making Harry momentarily forget that Lily wasn't actually touching Buffy at all. 

"I do, mum," Harry assured the ghost.  "I really do."

"_I know…and that's why I hate to have to tell you this,_" Lily started.

Harry's eyes narrowed, and he felt his heart sink. "Tell me what?"

"_You must stay away from her Harry_," Lily warned.  "_She's dangerous.  She's not stable.  You've seen what she's capable of._"

Harry rubbed his cheek, the bruise from Buffy's punch from the previous night having almost disappeared thanks to Professor Dumbledore and Madam Pomfey, but Harry could still feel Buffy's fist against his skin.  His shoulder still ached from where the crossbow bolt had hit him.

"It was an accident," Harry insisted.

"_This time_," Lily said darkly.  "_How much longer before she loses control completely?  Why do you think that witches are never chosen to be Slayers? Especially_ _witches that are as powerful as Buffy is."_

"She would never hurt anyone," Harry said.

"_She tried to kill Giles…the man she considered a father.  How much longer do you think it will be before she tries to kill you?  Or Ron and Hermione?_"

Harry could feel his insides tightening into knots.  His friends had always been his biggest weakness.  He'd never wanted them to be hurt or placed in danger, even though they always seemed to be placed in the thick of it because of him.

And Harry couldn't deny the fact that the crossbow bolt that had hit him had actually been aimed at Giles.  It was definitely worrying for the Boy-Who-Lived, and he couldn't quite help but let the seed of doubt grow deeper roots within his mind.

"I can't just stay away from her," Harry said.

"_You must,_" Lily said firmly.  "_The longer you remain close to her, the sooner it will be that she hurts you even more than she already has._"

A single tear trickled down Harry's cheek.  He couldn't believe what his mother was telling him.  She wanted him to stay away from Buffy.  The one person he had ever loved with his entire being.  It was unthinkable, and yet, he wanted, more than anything, to trust in his mother.  The thing he'd wanted most in the world had just been given to him, and the first request had been to stay away from his girlfriend. 

"_You must cut off all ties to her completely,_" Lily warned.  "_Even the slightest piece of friendship with her will allow her to completely ruin you Harry.  And I would hate to have to watch you die._"

Harry nodded, tears now falling freely.  Lily Potter disappeared suddenly, and Harry felt completely empty.  "No!"

"_It's for the best Harry_," another voice whispered.  Harry wiped at his tear-filled eyes and looked up, his eyes going wide.  He felt a smile come to his face, even through his anger and complete devastation at the thought of losing Buffy completely.

"Dad?"

James Potter smiled at his son and nodded.  "_Your mother's right Harry.  I wish she was wrong…I know how much you love Buffy, but…we cannot sit and watch her destroy you.  I wish that it could be another way, but…it can't.  I'm sorry I don't have better news for you, son."_

Buffy began to stir, and James gave Harry one last smile before completely disappearing.  Harry wiped away his tears and allowed himself to stare at Buffy with all the love he felt.  He knew that he wouldn't get another chance to be with her the way he wanted.  He slowly sat up and reached his hand over to cup her cheek softly.

Buffy's eyes fluttered open and Harry gave her a gentle half-smile.

"Hey beautiful," he whispered.

Buffy smile softly and leant forward to kiss him.  Their lips met and Harry savoured the taste and feel of her, sighing into the kiss, knowing that he wouldn't get another chance to do this ever again. 

"I'm so sorry," Buffy whispered as they finally pulled away from each other.  Her fingers came up to touch the place where the crossbow bolt had entered Harry's shoulder. 

"Buffy…we really need to talk," Harry whispered, his voice clogged with emotion as he tried to keep his tears at bay.

The Slayer knew what was coming.  She'd felt it them moment he'd kissed her.  The kiss had been a goodbye.  It had been far too similar to the kiss she'd shared with Angel just before she'd thrust a sword into his gut. It was a goodbye and nothing more.

She sighed and felt tears well in her eyes.

"You don't have to say it," she said softly.  "I already know."

"I'm sorry," Harry whispered.

Buffy nodded and stood up, dropping one last kiss to Harry's cheek.  "So am I."

She took hold of his hand and pressed the ring that he'd given to her into his open palm, folding his fingers inwards, before taking a step back away from him.

As Buffy walked out of the room, Harry collapsed in tears, sobs wracking his body as he struggled to breath.

"_You did the right thing,_" James whispered in Harry's ear.

Harry heard the words, but they did little to comfort him.  He stared at the ring that he had given to buffy only eight days ago.  It felt like a lifetime had passed between then and now.  Harry reached up to his neck and unclasped the silver chain that held a heavy Celtic cross upon it.  It had been Buffy's gift to him for their anniversary.  He slid the ring onto the chain and let it collide with the cross.  He quickly replaced it around his neck and let the cool silver metal rest against his chest as he tucked the chain back into his shirt.

As James disappeared into the shadows to watch Harry's weeping, he smiled and shook his head with disappointment.  He hadn't been expecting it to be that easy.

------------------------

Buffy raced away from the infirmary, ignoring the students she passed, and not hearing the worried questions that some of them yelled to her retreating form.  All Buffy wanted to do was be as far away from Harry as possible.

Actually, that wasn't the truth.  She wanted to be as close to him as she could be, but she knew that it would never happen again. 

She was a danger to him, and that wasn't something that she was willing to risk.  She raced blindly down the corridors of Hogwarts until she found herself in front of a very familiar tapestry of ballet dancing trolls.  She was just outside the Room of Requirement. 

She'd never been in there by herself before.  Usually she was either with Harry or with Faith and the two Watchers.  She paced up and down the length of the tapestry three times before a door appeared.  She breathed in deeply, not entirely certain about what to expect beyond the door.

The Room reacted to her thoughts and feelings, and seeing as she had no earthly clue as to what she was even thinking, she wanted sure what would be in the room.  She opened the door and stepped inside, her eyes going wide and she gasped in shock.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded angrily.

"Waiting for you of course," was the simple reply.

Buffy glared at him angrily.  "Don't mess with me okay," she warned.  "I am seriously not in the mood."

Dumbledore nodded, his hand on his wand that remained hidden within his cloak.

"Yes, I can see that.  What I do wonder though is what exactly happened to you," he mused.

"Happened?" Buffy repeated.  "Nothing happened to me."

"Oh, trust me Miss Summers, something has definitely happened to you.  But what, I wonder.  For you have never possessed this much darkness before," Dumbledore said.

Buffy chuckled a little, too upset to think rationally about what was being said to her.  She was tired, angry and emotionally drained from the past week, and Harry's goodbye had been more than she could handle.

"I've always possessed it," she replied.  "It's been in me since birth, remember?  Why else would you guys have wanted me to have been taught the difference between good and evil?"

"So that you wouldn't forget," he replied.  "As it seems you have done so now."

Buffy stopped, not liking the implication of the Headmaster's words.

"I haven't forgotten anything," she insisted.

"Why did you not tell Rupert or myself about the ghosts?" Dumbledore asked, quickly changing topics.  He could see that the Slayer was too worked up to continue the previous line of conversation.  Better to change it to something that needed to be discussed.

Buffy stiffened and looked around the room, checking the corners of darkness for any lurking figures.  She couldn't feel anyone else in the room besides herself and Dumbledore.  It was an odd feeling, one she hadn't had in the last week.  The tingling in her spine that had alerted her to the ghosts was no more, and she couldn't help but notice how much easier her breathing suddenly seemed.

"They aren't here," Buffy whispered.

Dumbledore nodded.  "No, they aren't."

"How?" Buffy asked. 

Dumbledore smiled slightly.  "Because I require them not to be," he explained.  "This room reacts to what I require it to do, and as I wish for us to be free from other visitors, your ghosts aren't welcome here."

She looked at him, slightly impressed by his forward thinking.  "You knew that this was the only room that they couldn't come into."

Dumbledore nodded.  "I also knew that you would most likely come to this room at some point.  I hadn't anticipated that it would be so soon."

"But why isn't the room reacting to me?" Buffy asked curiously.  She knew from experience that each user of the room could effect it, but so far, none of the things that she'd thought of had appeared before her.

"I required this room to only respond to my thoughts rather than anyone else's for the time that I would be in here, which is why you have no effect on the room whatsoever," Dumbledore explained.  "Your thoughts are too erratic, and what I sense from you worries me greatly."

Buffy's first impulse was to be completely offended by the Headmaster.  She felt the sudden urge to pummel him to a bloody pulp.  It was when she caught herself in mid-fantasy that she realised that Dumbledore was right.

Her thoughts _were_ too erratic, and her own darkness was beginning to take over.  She'd noticed it the other evening when she'd drawn upon whatever source of power she could find within herself.  She'd opened up a dark place, and now she worried that she would never be able to close it back up.

She sighed deeply and sunk into the chair that Dumbledore had known Buffy would need.

"You're right," Buffy whispered softly.  She hated to admit it, but the Headmaster was right. 

"When was the first time you saw one of your ghosts?" Dumbledore asked.

"Last week.  I went to go patrolling, and…and I saw Harry's dad.  All week I've been seeing him," Buffy explained.

"Who else?"

"James, Lily, Tara Maclay's mom, Voldemort, Jenny Calendar, Angel and Angelus."

"Anyone else?" Dumbledore asked.

Buffy thought for a few moments before nodding.  "Me," she replied. 

Dumbledore stroked his beard thoughtfully.  It made very little sense.  So far it had only been Buffy that the ghosts had been appearing to.  And, several of the ghosts shouldn't have even been able to get into Hogwarts grounds. 

"I spoke to Sir Nicholas, and…he said that ghosts couldn't get into Hogwarts unless they'd been students.  And that they had to be benevolent," Buffy said.  "And, seeing as how I keep seeing Voldemort and Angelus, well…I'd say that neither of them are exactly candidates for being Casper the Friendly Ghost."

"Indeed," Dumbledore replied.  "What else, if anything, has happened that had been unusual?"

Buffy thought back over the last week.  She didn't want to admit to the accident that had happened the evening before in the alley with Faith and the seemingly homeless man.  Buffy knew that things had been strange long before that.

She was trying to recall what else had happened besides the ghosts.  Her patrols had been extremely dull, and she'd only really fought with one demon within the Forbidden Forest the entire week.

An image of the demon she'd fought suddenly flashed in front of herself and the Headmaster.  Buffy jumped slightly, shocked by the projected image.

"I thought I couldn't effect the room," Buffy said shakily.

"You aren't," Dumbledore replied.  "I required to see an image of anything you thought would be important, and…this is what you wanted to show me."

Dumbledore circled the frozen image of the cloaked demon with crosses stitching its eyes shut.  He couldn't recognise the demon, but he couldn't help but feel that it was connected to it all.

The image faded and in it's place, Buffy saw herself staking the man in the alleyway.  Buffy jumped back in shock, and Dumbledore stared at the moving picture in wide-eyed awe.  He looked at the Slayer who had tears in her eyes and was breathing quickly.

"Did this happen?" Dumbledore asked.

Struck dumb by the sudden re-enactment, all Buffy could do was nod her head.

"Is that why you needed the bubble of silence in the infirmary?" he asked.

Again, Buffy just nodded. 

"You healed him.  And then what?"

"I took him back to the alley, and…and I erased his memory of me hurting him."

Dumbledore closed his eyes tiredly.  "Does Rupert know?"

Buffy nodded again.  "I told him last night…after what happened with Harry." Buffy's voice caught slightly as she said Harry's name.  Dumbledore picked up on the slight hitch immediately.  He knew better than to try and get her to talk about it though, and knew that they needed to begin their research.  When a book suddenly appeared in Dumbledore's hands, he could have kicked himself for being so thoughtless in his plan to go to the library.

He allowed the book of Dark Creatures to flip open, and there in front of him was a picture of the demon that Buffy's mind had projected an image of only minutes ago.  He read through the text, paling slightly.  He book-marked the page and looked up at the Slayer.

"Come…we must speak to Rupert."

----

Oooo, angst.  Sorry for the lack of updates, life has been nuts lately.  Many thanks for your reviews and stuff, you guys rock!

Toodles.

DKG.


	16. The Bringer

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: THE BRINGER

Giles sat in shocked silence, the book that Dumbledore had given him sitting open in his hands.

"You're certain that this is the creature you fought?" Giles asked.

Buffy sighed.  "For the twelfth time Giles, _yes_, that was definitely it," Buffy replied.  "Why?  What's so special about Mr No-Eyes?"

"They're known as Harbingers," Giles explained.  "Bringers.  They act as High Priests for the First."

"The First?" Buffy asked.  "First what?"

Giles breathed in deeply and looked up into Buffy's eyes.  Buffy was shocked by the incredibly worried, stressed and tired look in Giles' gentle green eyes.

"Evil," he replied.  "The First original Evil.  The being that created all other evils."

Buffy swallowed hard.  "Oh.  So…eviller than the average bear."

"Rather," Dumbledore agreed. 

"So…I killed a High Priest of the First," Buffy mused.  "Why do I get the feeling that that's not a good thing?  And, I mean, really, _really_ not a good thing."

"And yet no others have come for you," Giles mused.

Buffy glared at him.  "Not as comforting as you'd think," she said dryly.

Giles shrugged sheepishly and looked back down at the text he was holding.  He read through the information again, still not liking what it was saying.

"So…here's my next question," Buffy began.  "If these priest guys are bowing down to the First…well…where _is_ the First?  What's it doing?  I mean…for something called the First Evil, it sounds as though it'd be trying to do some serious damage, not just sit around for tea and crackers."

"I believe that is where your ghosts come into play," Dumbledore said.

Buffy turned to look at the Headmaster quizzically.  She wasn't sure where Dumbledore had come up with that link, but, now that she thought about it, it would make a great deal of sense.

"The ghosts…they're really the First?" Buffy asked.

"It is just a theory," Dumbledore explained.  "Though it would explain how it was able to enter the Halls of Hogwarts.  They are not real ghosts.  Merely a non-corporeal type of evil that cannot be restricted, except through truly powerful magic."

"Like the Room of Requirement?" Buffy asked.

"Exactly," the Headmaster replied.

"But what would it want with Buffy?" Giles asked curiously.

Dumbledore's eyes suddenly darkened and Buffy found herself extremely uncomfortable with Dumbledore's expression.

"For what purpose I can only imagine," Dumbledore replied quietly.  "And even then, I am sure my imagination would fall short."

Giles went quiet in contemplation and Buffy found herself feeling horribly nauseous at the thought of what the First had in store for her.  The idea that the ghosts that had been plaguing her weren't actually the spirits of the deceased people was both calming and unnerving at the same time.  She couldn't help but feel slightly calmer about the fact that it wasn't the _real_ ghosts of James and Lily Potter haunting her steps.

What worried the Slayer though, was the idea that the ghosts had been planting seeds of doubt into her mind.  And they'd worked like a charm.  She was doubting herself and her abilities, as well as beginning to draw upon the darker places of herself.

Even Dumbledore had pointed out that Buffy had begun using Darker magics than what she'd ever used before, and now that it had been pointed out to her, Buffy couldn't help but notice how often she'd relied on the darkness inside herself.  At first she'd justified her use of the darker magics by explaining it away as being necessary, but now that Buffy knew about the First's manipulation of her, she couldn't help but wonder just how many things she'd opened herself up to just through the use of her magics.

The more Buffy thought about it, the more worried she became.  She closed her eyes tiredly before opening them up to glance around Giles' office, the familiar tingling at the back of her neck alerting her once more.  She spotted the ghostly presence in the corner of the room, the mocking smile of Voldemort that had haunted her steps for days.

"You're not him," Buffy said quietly.

Giles and Dumbledore both started at Buffy's statement, both of them visually scanning the room to see whom she was talking to. Neither of them saw anything at all.

"_No, I'm not,"_ the ghost affirmed.  "_I knew you'd figure it out sooner or later.  Actually…I sort of thought you'd realise a little sooner."_

Buffy recognised the turn of phrase.  It was something that Angel had sad to her when they'd first met.  She didn't appreciate the way that the First continued to use Angel's words to taunt and mock her.

"The First huh?" Buffy mused.  "And you picked _his_ form.  Not very terrifying."

The ghostly Voldemort smirked and stepped forward so that he was directly in front of Buffy, looking down at her.

"_But it worked so well before,_" he replied.

Buffy glared at the First.  "And what did you want with me?"

Dumbledore and Giles were having trouble following the one-sided conversation, but both Professors knew better than to interrupt the flow of discussion.  Now that they'd discovered what the threat was, they'd be more likely to be able to counter-act it.

"_Haven't you worked that out yet?"_ it asked snidely.   "_And I thought I'd done so well trying to explain it to you._"

"I've never been good at riddles," she replied.

The ghostly Voldemort then smiled a truly terrifying smile and Buffy felt her heart beat a little bit faster as her insides clenched in fear.

"_Never good at riddles, but still a Riddle at heart_," he said.  "_A true descendant of Salazar Slytherin._"

"I may be a descendant of Salazar Slytherin, but I am and always will be a Gryffindor," Buffy replied angrily.

The First just chuckled and shook its head in a condescending manner.  "_My poor child_," it said softly, raising a hand to touch Buffy's cheek.  A chill of coldness ran through her body and she shivered, but she couldn't feel anything actually touching her skin. 

Giles and Dumbledore both very nearly jumped a foot in the air when suddenly the place where Buffy's eyes had been locked became filled with the tall form of a younger Voldemort.  The Voldemort as he'd been before he'd been beaten by a one-year-old Harry Potter.  The powerful and intimidating man that had terrified thousands of people, both magical and muggle. 

Giles went to take a step forward, his hand on his wand, before remembering what Buffy had said about the ghosts not being corporeal.  His magic would have no effect on them.

"_You have so much to learn.  So much more damage you can do here at Hogwarts.  Just imagine the havoc you could wreak with such powerful magic._"

Dumbledore's eyes narrowed.  He _could_ imagine the havoc that Buffy could wreak within Hogwarts, and it wasn't anything he liked to give too much thought to.  He couldn't deny that the thought of getting Buffy away from Hogwarts hadn't occurred to him, and he could only wonder just how much damage it would take before he was forced to ask her to leave.

"Never," Buffy said softly.  Even though her voice was quiet, it was unwavering and strong, as determined as it had ever been, and Giles and Dumbledore couldn't have been prouder of her determination.

Voldemort's form suddenly shrank by about seven inches, and instead of Voldemort, it was James Potter standing in front of Buffy, looking at her with sad eyes.

_"That's what you said about hurting Harry.  That you never would…and where is he now_?" James asked.

Buffy felt a pang of guilt.  The last place she'd seen Harry had been in the infirmary.  But they were no longer together, so she knew that there was less chance of her ever hurting him again.  If he wasn't close to her, he couldn't be harmed by her.

"Don't listen to it Buffy," Dumbledore said forcefully.  "It wants you to doubt yourself."

James turned to look at Dumbledore, laughing heartily. 

_"Oh, you give the girl far too much credit, old man," _James said coldly_.  "All she's done since she was told who her father was is doubt herself._"__

Giles and Dumbledore's gaze swung around to look at the Slayer.  For a moment of indecision, Buffy felt the urge to duck her head under the scrutiny that she was receiving.  Instead, she raised her head, her chin stuck out proudly.  She looked at the form of James Potter and shook her head.

"Get out of here," she said steadily.  "We know what you are now.  We know you aren't James or Voldemort or Lily or anyone else.  You don't scare me anymore.   So just get out."

James looked down at her for a moment.  The ghost quickly transformed again, this time into the image of Angelus, smirking down at the Slayer.

"_As you wish lover.  I'll see you in your dreams_."

In a flash, the ghost was gone, and Buffy felt herself breath a little easier.  She couldn't even sense it's presence in the room with them, so she knew that they were alone once more.

There was a silent pause as both Professors looked at the Slayer with caution, as though afraid that she would collapse at any given moment.

"Well," Giles eventually said.  "That was bracing."

Buffy sighed and flopped down into a chair, too tired to make herself stay standing.

"And that was one of the better visits," she commented.

Dumbledore looked at the girl, his eyes curious, his expression thoughtful.

"I have a feeling that that was not the last we've seen of the First," Dumbledore mused.

Buffy shook her head tiredly.  "Nah, definitely not.  If all the bad guys just disappeared cos I told them to, I'd be using that method heaps more."

Giles managed to muster up a half-hearted smile at Buffy's quip, but he was more worried about what the First had been saying.  To say that it was disconcerting seeing a ghost of Voldemort touching Buffy's cheek would be an understatement.  He felt completely frazzled and he could only wonder how Buffy seemed so calm about it.

But when he looked a little closer at his young charge, he noticed that her hands were shaking slightly and she looked more tired and drawn than he had ever seen her before.

"Are you alright?" Giles asked softly.

Buffy just shrugged.  "I'll be fine."

Dumbledore looked across the room to the clock hanging on the wall and then turned his gaze to Buffy and Giles.

"Perhaps it would be best if we adjourned for lunch," he suggested.  "We'll all think clearer on a full stomach.  We'll reconvene as soon as we're able."

Buffy nodded and stood up, not bothering to wait for the two Professors to follow her.

"Perhaps we should ask Harry, Hermione and Ron to help us research this," Giles suggested, just before Buffy could walk out the door.

Buffy stiffened at the mention of Harry's name.  That was exactly the one thing that she didn't want to talk –or even _think_- about at that moment.

"No…not until we know more.  I don't want them involved in this," Buffy said.

"But Buffy-"

"She's right Rupert," Dumbledore said.  "It is best to continue as is.  They will be informed of everything as soon as we know more."

Buffy turned back to look at the Headmaster, their eyes meeting and locking for several moments.  Buffy could read the silent words in Dumbledore's eyes.  He feared what could happen as much as Buffy did, if not more.  The Headmaster wouldn't risk anything happening to his other students if he could prevent it. 

Buffy finally pulled her gaze away from Dumbledore's eyes and walked out of the room, heading for anywhere _except_ the Great Hall.  She was in no rush to see Harry or her other friends.

Dumbledore turned to look at the DADA Professor.

"We'll have to keep a close eye on that girl," the Headmaster mused. 

Giles glared angrily at Dumbledore, unable to believe the words that had come from his mouth.

"You truly think she would actually hurt anyone?  She's spent the last year and a half proving that she wouldn't do anything like that, and…and you just completely lose trust in her because of a manipulative force of evil?" Giles asked incredulously.

"I worry more for her safety than anyone else's," Dumbledore explained.   "If the First was right in suggesting her self doubt, one can only guess how volatile she is right now.  I shall have to speak with Harry and Hermione."

"But you just said-"

"I know what I said," Dumbledore cut him off gently.  "Harry and Buffy are no longer seeing each other, if I was reading Buffy correctly.  Her magic is erratic, and Harry's scar is connected to Buffy's moods.  He is our best link if Buffy is not being completely forthcoming with us."

"She wouldn't lie to us," Giles said defensively.

"Not lie, no," Dumbledore agreed.  "But she would conceal the truth from us.  For our own sakes I believe.  And if she keeps these things to herself completely…I fear what the First may do with her.  With the power that she wields, she could be used as an extremely dangerous weapon, and that is not something that Buffy could ever live with."

Giles swallowed hard and could only pray that things would get better instead of worse.  He knew how unlikely it was though, and just hoped that the damage that the First was going to cause would be minimal.  He resolved himself to keeping an eye on Buffy and ensuring that she was well looked after.

----

Sorry for the lack of updates.  I finally got around to actually starting to finish this fic.  Three more chapters to write, and I actually have some sort of clue where the hell this is going.  Huzzah!  This fic has sat dormant for nearly two months, but I forced myself to write more, and now I just wanna get this darn thing finished.

Many thanks to everyone for all your reviews, you guys all rock tremendously!

Toodles.

DKG.


	17. The Lunch

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: THE LUNCH

Hermione and Ron sat at the Gryffindor Table, checking over their shoulders every few moments, searching for either Harry or Buffy. It was worrying when either of the two were late for lunch, and even though they were _both_ missing, it was definitely odd.

"Do you think they're alright?" Ron asked worriedly. "I mean…with Buffy going…well, nuts?"

Hermione glared at her boyfriend and kicked his shins under the table.

"She is _not_ nuts," Hermione replied. "I'd like to see how sane you'd be if you had ghosts haunting you."

Ron just shrugged and continued eating as though he didn't have a care in the world. His eyes lit up when he saw his best friend coming towards them. His smile vanished however when he saw the faded bruise on Harry's cheek.

Harry took his seat opposite the couple and miserably picked up his knife and fork.

"What's with the shiner then mate?" Ron asked.

Hermione gasped as she saw the nearly healed bruise on Harry's face.

"Was an accident," Harry replied.

Hermione felt distinctly uncomfortable by how Harry had said it. If it had been any of the students who'd hit him, Harry would usually have volunteered the information to them. But there was one person that Harry would happily defend no matter what.

"Did Buffy give you that?" Hermione whispered worriedly.

Ron looked completely startled and laughed loudly at the suggestion. "Yeah right Hermione," he said, still guffawing. "As if Buffy could ever hit _him_."

Harry's eyes looked down and Ron's smile vanished. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "Cor," he breathed softly. "She _hit_ you?"

"Like I said, it was an accident," Harry replied, absently rubbing his shoulder which was mostly healed except for a slight stinging pain whenever he moved too quickly.

Hermione still wasn't entirely convinced. "Where _is _Buffy? You must have found her."

Harry nodded. "Yeah, we found her."

"And?" Ron prompted impatiently.

"And…she's alright," Harry said.

Harry absently reached up to fiddle with the chain that housed his cross and the ring he'd given to Buffy. Hermione noticed immediately.

"Harry…isn't that Buffy's ring?" Hermione asked.

Harry took hold of the ring and held it up, still attached to his neck. He rubbed the dried specks of blood off the metal and looked at it sadly.

"Yes," he replied softly.

"You didn't…you haven't…you two didn't fight did you?" Ron asked.

Harry felt the sting of tears in his eyes, bile rising in his throat.

"We broke up," he explained. "This morning." He paused for a moment longer and swallowed hard. "I broke up with her."

Hermione paled and felt the entire world spin. She knew that Harry and Buffy had had their problems, more than their fair share of them, but to hear that they were no longer together was a devastating blow to her. Harry and Buffy were her two best friends, and she didn't even want to imagine what would happen to their circle of friends now that the couples dynamics had been changed.

"Where is she?" Hermione asked.

Harry shrugged. "I don't know. She walked out of the infirmary earlier. I haven't seen her since."

"But…you're still friends aren't you?" Ron asked.

Ron couldn't believe what had happened either. He knew he teased Harry for the mushiness of Harry and Buffy's relationship, but he honestly enjoyed seeing Harry and Buffy together as a couple. They were just so incredibly _right_ for each other, regardless of the fact that Buffy was the only child of Voldemort.

Harry sighed and shook his head. "We can never be _just_ friends Ron," Harry said sadly.

"Why not?" Ron demanded. "Other people do it all the time."

_"Even the slightest piece of friendship with her will allow her to completely ruin you Harry."_

His mother's voice echoed in his mind, and he knew that the hardest decisions to make were usually the ones that would benefit you. He just hated the outcome of it all.

"We just can't," Harry finally replied.

"You aren't even going to _try_ are you?" Hermione asked angrily.

She stood up angrily, grabbed a pile of sandwiches and stormed away from the table, leaving Harry and Ron looking at her retreating form with bewildered looks on their faces.

The two fiends sat in silence for a moment longer before Ron awkwardly clapped his hand on Harry's shoulder.

"I really am sorry mate."

------------------------

Hermione made her way outside, knowing that her best friend enjoyed the fresh air during the day, rather than being inside the castle. Her eyes scanned the treeline, also knowing that the Slayer enjoyed being amongst the trees of the Forbidden Forest, especially when she was the only one with permission to actually be in there. Hermione knew that the Forest was like a sanctuary for the girl, and the chances of her being there were great.

Hermione spotted the clearing by the lack of treetops in a certain area and began walking straight towards it. If there was anywhere that Buffy would be, it would be there.

Hermione was grateful for the sun shining overhead, the beams of light coming through the leaves of the overhanging branches. If it had been nighttime, she'd have been less likely to wander through the Forest. She cautiously made her way to the clearing, thankful that nothing had jumped out to attack her.

She wasn't sure why, but something made her hide herself behind a tree and just observe her best friend for a moment.

"I know you're there," Buffy's voice said clearly.

Hermione was about to step out, but she stopped as she heard Buffy's next sentence.

"I know what you're trying to do to me," she said. The Slayer stood up from her rock and looked around the clearing for any sign of the First. She could feel the familiar tingling at the back of her neck, and even though the ghosts were incredibly creepy, she preferred to have them visibly in front of her, rather than for them to be just watching her.

"You want me to go nuts and start hurting people here," Buffy continued. "You want me to stay here at Hogwarts. Well I got news for you, _it ain't gonna happen!_"

A tall figure stepped out of the trees and walked towards Buffy, who pulled herself up to her full height and stared back defiantly.

"_Oh it will happen child,_" the First as Voldemort whispered. "_I can guarantee that._"

"I would leave before I ever hurt my friends," Buffy declared.

Voldemort chuckled maniacally and shook his head. "_Oh, you don't have the strength to stay away from here my girl. You don't want to leave this place._"

Hermione had her hand clasped over her mouth to keep her from making a sound. She knew that Buffy was speaking to one of her ghosts, but Hermione couldn't see who or where the figure was. She did know, however, that she wasn't liking where the one-sided conversation was going. Leave Hogwarts?

"I may not want to leave," Buffy said softly, "but I won't be manipulated by you. Not now. Not ever."

"_You can't leave!"_ Voldemort yelled fiercely.

Buffy just smiled and nodded. "Yes. I can."

With a crack she apparated back up to the girls dormitories within the Gryffindor Tower. Hermione began racing back up towards the castle, needing to find Buffy before the Slayer could do anything stupid.

As for the First, it smiled and shook Its head.

"_That was far too easy._"

----

Howdy guys! Many thanks for all your feedback and stuff!!

All of you who worked out that it was the First, kudos to you guys. How its resolved is in no way similar to Season Seven cos I didn't wanna just re-write the whole season.

Guess what, I've actually finished writing this fic!! It clocks in at twenty-five chapters total, so you've got another eight chapters to go. Huzzah!!

Also, no more updates on any of my fics until tuesday. I'm visiting a mate, and I don't think i'll have internet access.

Toodles.

DKG.


	18. The Requirement

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: THE REQUIREMENT

Hermione raced up the stairs, panting and out of breath.  She hurried through the portrait, shouting out the password before she'd even rounded the corner of the hallway so that the opening would be accessible.  She ran up the corridors to the right and burst through the door to the Sixth Year Girls Dormitories.

Buffy jumped, completely startled by the sudden bang of the door against the wood on the door behind it.

"Hermione," Buffy breathed, her hand going to her chest, her heart seeming to skip several beats.

"You can't leave," Hermione said frantically.

Buffy looked down at the bags that she was frantically throwing clothes into and then back up at her best friend.

"How did you know what I was doing?" Buffy asked suspiciously.

Hermione stopped and bent over, trying to catch her breath, her hands resting on her knees.

"I…I saw you.  In the Forest.  Talking to one of your ghosts."

Buffy turned back to her packing.  "Then you know why I have to go."

"Buffy, I know that they're real," Hermione said forcefully.  "I know that you're not crazy or anything like that."

"No…not crazy.  Not yet anyway," Buffy said darkly.  "Besides, I have to leave.  I can't risk hurting you or Ron or…or Harry."

Hermione noticed the way that Buffy's voice caught in her throat when saying Harry's name.  She could still remember the tears in Harry's eyes when he'd told her and Ron about breaking up with Buffy.  Neither of them wanted to be separated, but they were staying away from each other anyway.

"You won't!" Hermione yelled.  "We wouldn't let you."

"I've already hurt Harry!" Buffy yelled back, stopping her packing and turning to face Hermione.  "Did he tell you about that?"

Hermione sighed and nodded.

"I saw the bruise," she admitted.

Buffy shook her head and bent down to pick up one of the discarded weapons that she'd thrown onto the floor amidst the frantic packing.  It was the crossbow that she'd transfigured earlier in the Shrieking Shack. 

"I didn't just hit him," Buffy said, throwing the unloaded crossbow at Hermione's feet.

Hermione's eyes opened wide as she stared at the weapon. 

"You…" she trailed off, not entirely sure how to word such a sentence.

"Shot him," Buffy finished for her.  "Yeah.  In his shoulder.  If Dumbledore hadn't been there, he would have bled to death."

"But…it was an accident, wasn't it?" Hermione asked.

"I shot the bow on purpose," Buffy admitted.  "It wasn't aimed at him though."

Hermione felt somewhat relieved for that small favour.  She couldn't quite fathom the idea of how Harry could have been shot if it hadn't been aimed at him though.

"Now do you get it?" Buffy asked angrily.  "Do you get why I need to go?  The First keeps making me see things!  It gets inside my head…makes me do things that I don't want to do, but I keep doing them cos I keep _seeing _things!  I can't risk hurting the people I love."

Hermione was silent, swallowing hard as she listened to Buffy speak vehemently about her reasons for leaving.  They were valid points, and Hermione couldn't fault the Slayer for not wanting to put her friends in danger.

Her eyebrow suddenly furrowed as she remembered another portion of Buffy's sentence.  "The First?" she asked.

Buffy sighed and zipped up the duffle bag she'd been packing.  "Ask Giles about it.  He'll tell you."

Hermione grabbed hold of Buffy's arm, knowing that if Buffy apparated somewhere, she'd be taken as well.  Buffy glared at her best friend, knowing the same thing that Hermione knew.  She couldn't leave with Hermione holding onto her.

"You can't go!" Hermione yelled.

Buffy looked down for a moment, clutching tightly at the bag in her hand.  She felt the familiar tingling at the back of her neck and looked up just in time to see herself attacking Hermione from behind, a stake in her doppelganger's hand, heading towards Hermione's back.  Buffy swallowed the sick feeling in her stomach, and gave Hermione a tight hug, closing her eyes to the image that the First was projecting of herself.

"Take care," Buffy whispered.

Buffy shoved her friend away from her, careful not to put too much strength into the shove.  Hermione tumbled onto the mattress behind her and got caught up in the unmade bed sheets.  She could only watch in dismay as Buffy disapparated out of Hogwarts.

"No!" she yelled, but all that answered her back was the silence of an empty room.

------------------------

Hermione raced into Dumbledore's office, flinging open the door without even knocking first.

"She's gone!" Hermione yelled.

Professor Dumbledore and Giles both jumped to their feet, exchanging a worried glance.  They knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Hermione was speaking about Buffy.  The implications of Buffy being gone were not ones that they liked to think about.

"Gone?" Giles asked.  "What do you mean?"

"I mean, she packed her bags and disapparated out of here!" Hermione explained frantically. 

Giles grabbed his cloak and quickly pulled it around his shoulders.

"We must find her," he said.

"We don't know where she went," Hermione answered.  "She could be anywhere for all we know!"

"What about Willow's?" Giles asked.

"It's too obvious, Rupert," Dumbledore replied.  "She won't go anywhere that she believes we'd be able to find her."

"Well, who else would she have gone to for help?" Hermione asked.

Giles and Dumbledore exchanged looks, Dumbledore shaking his head sadly.  Giles sighed and sat heavily in the chair behind him, hanging his head sadly.

"Chances are she wouldn't have gone to anyone for help," Dumbledore explained.  "Slayers are such independent creatures, Buffy especially.  And if she's frightened of harming other people due to her ghosts, then it is likely that she would isolate herself to keep that from happening."

Hermione couldn't believe what she was hearing.  She didn't want to imagine the next year and a half without Buffy being there as well.  So much had changed for them all just by the Slayer's presence, and to have been robbed of it seemed grossly unfair.

"She'll stop being haunted by the ghosts now though," Hermione said, somewhat grateful for that.  "Now that she's not on Hogwarts grounds anymore."

Dumbledore shook his head.  "No, my dear girl, she will still be visited by the spirits," the Headmaster said gravely.  "For they were not ordinary ghosts."

"What were they?" Hermione asked, completely confused.

"The First," Giles muttered angrily.  He was annoyed that they hadn't found any useful information regarding the First or its plans.  He couldn't believe that a library as extensive as the one on Hogwarts grounds had had nothing useful to tell them about an entity that called itself the First.

"The First?" Hermione repeated.  "Buffy said something about that.  About how it was making her see things…making her _do_ things that she didn't want to do."

"We believe the ghosts were trying to make her harm her fellow students," Dumbledore explained.  "Aside from that, we cannot even begin to imagine what else it has planned."

Hermione sighed.  Buffy had been right in wishing to leave then.  If she wasn't near the students, she couldn't harm them.  It was a logical leap, but Hermione still felt uncomfortable about it.

"We have to start researching," Hermione said.  "We have to learn more about the First and about what it wants.  Isn't there a summoning spell or something we could use in the library?"

"Unfortunately the library would not allow a summoning charm to work.  Something about the books believing that students should have to work to find out where the information is hidden rather than using a spell to find the information they…" Dumbledore suddenly stopped, a smile gracing his face.  He paused for a moment before completing his sentence, "…require."

Dumbledore grabbed his pointed hat and swung his cloak around his shoulders.  "Come quickly," he said, leaving the office as Giles and Hermione followed with some confusion.

"Where are we going?" Hermione asked.

Dumbledore stayed silent, but continued leading them to the seventh floor.  Hermione recognised the room immediately, the Room of Requirement.  Dumbledore paced the length of the tapestry on the wall three times before a door appeared before them.  The Headmaster led them through the door and into a room that was lined with bookshelves, each containing musty tomes.

He walked to the shelf and picked up a book, allowing it to flip open to a page that he would require. 

Giles finally put all the clues together, realising where they were, for he'd never been there before, and realising that Dumbledore was known to be the most brilliant wizard for a reason.

Giles followed the Headmaster's example and pulled a book off the shelf, Hermione doing the same.

For forty minutes, they researched in silence, each of them learning more and more about the entity called the First Evil. 

"Here's something," Hermione said, breaking the silence.

Giles and Dumbledore both looked up at the girl, waiting for her to continue.

"_The First can only enter the realm of man when summoned, or unless there is a mystical imbalance," _Hermione read_.  "The First will attempt to rectify such an imbalance by creating an equilibrium.  Such an imbalance usually occurs when Warriors of Light become too numerous_."

"Warriors of Light?" Giles repeated.  "Like Slayers?"

"The Chosen Two," Hermione said.  "Buffy and Faith.  That's the imbalance."

Dumbledore took the book from Hermione's hands and read through the relevant paragraph again, liking it even less the second time around.

"_Creating an equilibrium_," Dumbledore quoted. 

"What does that mean?" Hermione asked.

Dumbledore shook his head, not entirely certain of the answer.  Hermione tried thinking about it for a moment longer but it was Giles who put the pieces together.  His face paled and he felt as though he were about to throw up.

"Professor Giles?" Hermione asked softly.

"An equilibrium," Giles said quietly.  "If there's too many Warriors of Light…the First will try to rectify it."

Hermione too paled significantly.  "It wants to _kill _Buffy?" she asked.

Giles shook his head.  "Worse.  When its done with her, Buffy won't be a Warrior of Light anymore.  She'd be a Champion of Darkness."

----

Yeah, I'm sick of this fic.  So, you guys get three updates today.  Enjoy!!

Toodles.

DKG.


	19. The Vision

CHAPTER NINETEEN: THE VISION

"Angel Investigation, we help the hopeless," an Irish man said as he picked up the phone.  He listened to the person on the other end for a moment, his feet casually on the desk in front of him, his chair leaning back at a slightly dangerous angle.

"You think your husband's a vampire?" Alan Francis Doyle asked, jotting down the basics of the conversation on a piece of paper in front of him.  "What makes you say that?"

He listened again and sighed.  It wasn't the first time any of their 'clients' had thought that there was something supernatural to their spouses. 

"Alright, so he's going out late and night and coming home just before sunrise with dark marks on his neck.  Now, can you tell me if you've seen him in the sunlight?…You have?… When?"

Doyle sighed.  "If you've seen him in sunlight today, then no your husband's not a vampire."

Doyle looked up as he saw his boss enter the office from the apartment area downstairs.  The Irish half-Bracchen demon waved hello before retuning his attention back to the phone call.

"What do I think?" Doyle repeated, trying to stall for time.  "Well, uh…your husband may well just like having a drink or two after work, y'know.  With the ladies."

There was silence on the other end, followed by the dial tone.  Doyle laughed and hung up the phone, looking towards his boss, the ensouled vampire Angel.

"Another paranoid wife?" Angel asked.

"Bite marks on his neck and getting in at dawn," Doyle explained.  "You'd think that if she was that worried, she'd have just checked his pulse or something."

Angel laughed slightly and shook his head.  He had to admit that when he'd met Doyle in Sunnydale he'd never have thought they would have got along so well.  The truth of it was that Doyle had turned out to be an incredibly good and loyal friend to him.

It had been Doyle's idea to start Angel Investigations, and to charge a small fee for their services if their clients were able to afford it.  Angel had been against it at first, but some of the cases he took up, he was more than willing to be paid for it. 

"I was wondering-" Doyle stopped suddenly as he felt another of his bone-crunching, mind-numbing visions rip through his mind. He doubled over, clutching at his head as Angel looked on, unable to do anything for his friend except to pass over a glass of scotch as soon as the vision had finished.

Doyle downed the shot of alcohol and looked to Angel.

"That was just…bizarre."

"What?" Angel asked, standing and shrugging into his jacket, making sure he had the keys to his convertible in his pocket.

"Twelve blocks east, on the corner of Twelfth and Main in about four hours," Doyle replied, "there's a blonde girl fighting vampires.  She killed 'em all, but…there was something else there with her.  Something I couldn't see, but…"

"But?" Angel prompted. 

"It felt dark.  It wanted to hurt her."

"And the girl?" Angel asked. 

Doyle hated the visions weren't always that clear.  He'd gotten a good look at the girl, but it wasn't someone that he recognised. 

"She's powerful whoever she is," Doyle replied.

"A Slayer?" Angel asked.

"More powerful than that."

Angel felt his heart sink.  "A witch?"

Doyle shrugged.  "Maybe.  But I've never met a witch with that much power before."

The brooding vampire moved to his desk and rummaged inside a drawer until he reached the bottom of his folders.  He took out a small envelope that held a single photograph.  He removed the photo and handed it to Doyle, who's eyes went wide in recognition.

"Was that her?" Angel asked.

Doyle nodded.  "That's her.  But…how'd you know that?"

Angel sighed and got out a piece of paper, scribbling a note before sealing it an envelope.  He walked to the window and opened it, whistling loudly into the evening.

Doyle watched in confusion, wondering if Angel had finally lost his mind.  He was startled to see a large brown owl fly through the window and land on Angel's desk, nipping at Angel's fingers.

"What the hell?"

Angel tied the envelope to the owl's leg before stroking the feathers on it's back.

"Make sure he gets this as quickly as possible," Angel instructed the large bird that had followed him back from England a year before.  He'd only sent one other letter to Hogwarts, and that had been the previous January, but the owl had stayed in Los Angeles.  Angel had learned to summon the owl and it had never failed to immediately come to him.

"Alright, I've seen some damn weird things before, but that was just…what was that Angel?" Doyle asked.

"The girl you saw in your vision is a good friend of mine," Angel explained.

Doyle knew there was more to Angel's relationship with the girl from his vision, but he knew enough about the brooding vampire to know that if he didn't volunteer the information, he was less likely to explain if he was pushed to answer things.

"She's meant to be in England, studying at a school called Hogwarts," Angel continued.

"Hogwarts?" Doyle asked.  He'd heard of the school before.  "As in the school for witches and wizards?"

Angel nodded.  "That'd be the one.  I owe one of the Professors a few favours, and I have a feeling that he has no clue that Buffy is back in California."

"Buffy?" Doyle asked.  "And she'd be who?"

"One of the most powerful women on earth.  She's the daughter of a very dark wizard, but she was trained to be a Slayer.  And I have a bad feeling that she actually is a Slayer now, if your vision is any indication."

Angel took a seat behind his desk and replaced the photograph in his drawer.

"Aren't we going to help her?" Doyle asked.

Angel sighed and shook his head.  "It's not up to me," he replied.

Doyle looked at him incredulously.

"But the vision!"

"You said she killed them all," Angel said.

"Well, yeah," Doyle agreed.  "But…but that thing that was haunting her…it's dark.  Darker than anything I ever did see."

"Doyle, the Powers give you the visions so that you can guide me to help whoever needs it.  I know for a fact that it's not my responsibility to help her anymore.  As much as I would like to…it's not for me to do anymore."

"So whose job is it then?" Doyle asked.

Angel sighed and silently prayed that his owl would get to Hogwarts in time.  "It's Harry's."

------------------------

Giles, Dumbledore and Hermione were still cloistered away in the Room of Requirement, reading through books, trying to find out as much about the First Evil as they possibly could.  They were somewhat surprised by what they'd found out, though none of it made them any less worried about what it was trying to do to Buffy.

"Listen to this," Hermione suddenly said, straightening in her chair as she looked up at the two Professors.  "_The First Evil can only take the non-corporeal form of any person who has died within the previous twenty years.  It is a master of manipulation within both the waking world and the realm of dreams.  The First is able to choose whom it shall appear to and what form to appear as._"

"That's how it's been appearing as James and Lily and all the others," Giles commented.  "They've been dead less than twenty years."

"But…why is Buffy seeing herself then?" Hermione asked. 

Giles sighed and remembered the flippancy of Xander telling the Scoobies the news of what had happened down in the Master's lair over two and a half years before.

Yeah, Buffy died and everything… 

Wow, harsh.

"She was dead.  Momentarily.  She was drowned, and Xander Harris used CPR to revive her," Giles explained.

Dumbledore however had had his attention caught by another piece of the information.

"The First can choose whom it shall appear to," Dumbledore repeated.  There was something about the First's earlier visit that had stuck out in his mind.  Something that he should have picked up on earlier.

The First had chosen to show itself to Dumbledore and Giles at the exact moment that it had told Buffy of the damage she could still do at Hogwarts. He'd wondered when he'd need to ask the Slayer to leave for the safety of herself and the other students.

"We played right into it's hands," Dumbledore said, angry at himself for not realising it earlier.

"What do you mean?" Giles asked.

"When the First showed itself to you and I earlier, what was your _first_ reaction to what it said to Buffy?" Dumbledore asked.

Giles thought back and remembered his first instinctive reaction.  He'd been somewhat shamed by the initial thought, but it had been there.

"That Buffy shouldn't be at Hogwarts," he admitted softly.

"That was my reaction as well," Dumbledore said.  "And it's the exact reaction that the First wanted.  It can choose when to appear before us.  It _chose_ that moment so that we would begin to doubt her."

Hermione caught on quickly even though she hadn't been there when the First had appeared to them.

"You mean, it _wants _Buffy away from Hogwarts?" Hermione asked.

"Of course," Giles exclaimed, putting all the pieces together.  "It taunted her with the damage she could do, but…the truth of it is, the longer she stayed within Hogwarts, the more likely it would be that she would begin to get used to its presence within the school walls.  If the First had her away from here, away from her friends and the staff, it would be taking away her base of support."

"So, by isolating her, it's going to manipulate her even more," Hermione surmised.

"Indeed," Dumbledore agreed.

Hermione felt a bucket load of guilt slam through her.  She couldn't help but think that it was partly her fault for letting Buffy leave when they'd been talking earlier in the Gryffindor Tower.  Logically she knew that there was nothing more she could have done to get Buffy to stay, but she still felt the guilt.

"So now it has Buffy exactly where it wants her," Hermione said softly.  "With none of her friends and none of her family.  She and Harry broke up and…"

Hermione stopped suddenly.  She remembered Harry's soft voice from breakfast earlier.

We broke up this morning…I broke up with her.

"Hermione?" Giles prompted.

Hermione jumped to her feet.  "I'd bet my entire book collection that Harry got a visit from one of the ghosts.  Those two have come through worse than this and still managed to stay together.  The only thing that could have possibly have convinced Harry to break up with Buffy…"

"Would be James or Lily," Giles finished.  "Of course.  Dammit, why didn't we see this before?"

"We have to tell Harry," Hermione said.  "You found her with a locator spell before, maybe you could try it again."

Dumbledore nodded, and the three of them moved out of the Room of Requirement, heading towards the Gryffindor Tower.  They weren't even half way there when they were intercepted by Harry who was clutching a letter in his hand, a frantic look on his face.

"Harry, what is it?" Hermione asked.

"It's Buffy," he replied breathlessly.  "She's in LA."

-----

More to come…right now!

Toodles.

DKG.


	20. The Letter

CHAPTER TWENTY: THE LETTER

"Who sent you that?" Giles asked curiously, vaguely recognising the writing on the letter that Harry had been sent.

"It's just signed from 'a friend'," Harry said. 

Giles recalled a conversation from long ago that Buffy had told him about.

"_Who are you?"_

_"Let's just say…I'm a friend."_

_"Maybe I don't want a friend."_

_"I didn't say I was yours."_

"Angel," Giles surmised.  "He's in LA, and I recognise the handwriting somewhat.  It makes sense."

Harry couldn't help but feel surprised that Buffy's ex-boyfriend would write to him and tell him of Buffy's whereabouts when the vampire could have swooped in to save the day himself.  He wondered how tempted the vampire with a soul had been to save Buffy himself and try and convince her to stay away from Hogwarts completely.

"That's…really decent of him," Harry said quietly.

Hermione silently agreed, but didn't comment.

Harry was quickly filled in on the First Evil by Giles, Dumbledore and Hermione who explained that the ghosts that Buffy had been seeing hadn't been real.  Hermione wasn't surprised to find that she'd been right in thinking that Harry had had James and Lily visit him earlier in the day.  Harry couldn't help but feel half elated and half depressed about the fact that the ghosts weren't really his parents.  On one hand, he was desperate for contact with his family, but on the other hand, he didn't want his parents telling him to stay away from Buffy.  He couldn't believe that he had played into the First's hands by breaking up with the girl he loved.  He felt like kicking himself.

"Can you apparate us to LA?" Harry asked.  "We've got the exact address and everything."

Dumbledore shook his head.  "The distance is too great for so many people," he explained. 

Harry's face fell.  He could almost hear Dumbledore's next sentence, suggesting for he and Hermione to leave retrieving Buffy to Dumbledore and Giles.

"If we were to use a Portkey however," Dumbledore said, trailing off at the end of the sentence.

Harry grinned, and Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. 

The elderly wizard removed a hairbrush from his robes and placed it on the desk before aiming his wand at it.

"_Portus!_" 

Hermione raised her eyebrows, wondering why on earth Dumbledore had a hairbrush in his robe pockets, but chose not to say anything.  She noticed Harry's confusion at the chosen item as well and the two teens exchanged a glance, smirking at each other slightly.

Dumbledore walked back to his desk and removed something from the drawers, slipping it into his pocket before either Harry or Hermione could see what it was.  Harry couldn't help but be concerned by it, but knew that the Headmaster would only do something drastic if it was a worst case scenario.

"Ready?" Dumbledore asked.

Giles, Harry and Hermione gathered around Dumbledore's desk, each f them ready to put their fingers on the brush. 

"On the count of three.  One…two…"

------------------------

As instantly as the group had disappeared form Dumbledore's office in Hogwarts, they reappeared just as quickly in the darkened back alley of a street in the poorer part of LA.  Dumbledore cast a simple spell to give light to the alley, but all they could see was empty trashcans and flattened boxes lining the ground.

"She's not here," Harry said, disappointment seeping into his voice.

"Maybe it's the wrong street," Hermione suggested.

Giles thoughts were somewhat darker than Harry and Hermione's simple suggestions.  He couldn't help but wonder if the letter had even come from Angel at all.  He wondered if it had been some scheme to get them to travel all the way to LA as a trap of some wort.

He didn't have too much time to give it any more thought though.  There was a sudden rush of noise as at least eight sets of footsteps came stampeding towards them. 

First came a young woman with black hair and a terrified expression.  Following her was six vampires, all in their game faces.  And following them was the blonde girl they'd all been hoping to see, stake at the ready and jumping into the fray.

Buffy barely even had time to react to the sudden appearance of Harry, Hermione, Giles and Dumbledore, instead focussing on the fight in front of her.  She didn't want to think about how they had managed to find her when she'd been sure that a locator spell wouldn't work across countries. 

She placed herself between the black-haired woman and the group of hungry vampires, punching, kicking, dodging and ducking her way through a fight.

When one of the vampires slipped past Buffy's defences, Harry didn't even hesitate to rush forward with his wand raised.

"_Petrificus Totalus!_"

His aim was perfect, as he'd known that if he misfired the spell and accidentally hit Buffy, it would probably be the death of them all. 

The vampire froze and fell to the ground, its arms and legs locking into position.  He didn't have a stake on him though.  He thought about transfiguring a nearby rock into a stake, but then realised that he was holding a sturdy enough piece of wood in his hands already.

He quickly thrust his wand into the heart of the vampire and watched in satisfaction as it turned to dust.

Within minutes, the six vampires had been defeated, and Buffy turned to face her friends, her 'father' and the Headmaster.  Dumbledore touched the item in his pocket before muttering a quick spell that he knew would be needed.

When Buffy tried to apparate out of the alley, she was met with a very powerful barrier to stop her from doing so.  She looked at the Headmaster, somewhat impressed by his forethought.  Two months ago she may have been able to break through the Headmaster's barrier, but with everything that had been happening, she was no where near her full magical strength.

"Buffy…" Harry trailed off, not really knowing what to say.  He wanted to apologise for breaking things off with her, but he knew that she had other things that were probably more important than their relationship to deal with.  The First was trying to make her unstable enough to turn towards the darker side of life, and that wasn't something that Harry or anyone else wanted to see.

"You should have just stayed at Hogwarts," Buffy said.  "Saved yourself the trouble."

"Buffy, you must come back with us," Dumbledore said gently. "You shouldn't be by yourself."

"It's harder to hurt people if there's no one here to hurt," Buffy replied coldly.

"This is exactly what the First wants," Giles said.  "It wants you by yourself.  Isolated from the rest of the world.  You'd be playing right into its plans."

"And if I go back to Hogwarts, it'll just change its plans Giles," Buffy argued.  "If I hurt anyone…if I _killed_ anyone, I'd never be able to live with it.  I was Chosen to protect people from things and if I can't even protect them from myself, then what kind of a Slayer am I?"

"You won't hurt anyone!" Harry yelled angrily.  He didn't like the thought of losing his girlfriend, and now that he knew that the First had manipulated him into breaking up with Buffy he was mentally kicking himself for ever believing that his parents would want him to give up the one person who made him happiest.

Buffy shook her head and looked at the boy she loved with sad and guilty eyes.  Her gaze strayed to Harry's shoulder and the still slightly visible bruise that marred his face.

"I already have Harry," Buffy replied quietly.  "If I'm capable of hurting _you_ of all people, what's to stop me from hurting others?"

"Buffy, if you stay away, you'll be fulfilling the First's wishes," Giles said softly.  "The First wants you to stay away from Hogwarts.  It wants you by yourself, and I'll be damned before I allow that to happen."

Buffy's eyes met Giles', and the DADA Professor could see that his young protégé was close to breaking point.  He cursed himself for not having seen it before.  The First had systematically broken through her defences by playing on her multiple insecurities, and Giles hadn't even seen the slightest hint that something had been wrong until it was far too late.  Looking at the girl he considered a daughter, he couldn't help but wonder how he'd missed the signs.

"Buffy, we love you.  Whatever happens, you will always have us.  I once offered you my support and my respect, and I still hold to that promise," Giles said, his voice taking on a slightly desperate note.  "But I must insist that you come back with us.  We can research what's been happening more extensively, and we'll find a way to stop it.  But we can't do that without you."

There was complete silence in the alley, save for the far off sounds of traffic several blocks over.  A police siren echoed in the stillness of the evening, and Harry, Dumbledore and Giles waited with baited breath to see what the Slayer would say.

"Buffy please," Harry whispered.  "Please, don't let this thing destroy us.  You are the best thing that's ever happened to me, and I'm not going to let some ancient evil take you away from me."

The Boy-Who-Lived inched forwards, his eyes never leaving Buffy's.  He held out a cautious hand, moving as slowly as he possibly could, as though he was approaching a wounded animal.  He saw Buffy's knees falter, and he barely managed to catch her before she collapsed to the ground.

As Buffy broke down sobbing, all Harry could do was hold onto the girl he loved more than life itself, and give her something to cling to.

----

This chapter was the one that has caused me the most difficulty in writing, even though I wasn't entirely sure why when I managed to sit down and write it.  This chapter was the main cause in my lack of updates, believe it or not.  Hopefully from here I have kind of a clearer view of what the hell is going on.  Huzzah!

Hope you enjoyed the triple update!!  Many thanks for all your reviews and emails, you guys rock!

Toodles.

DKG.


	21. The Seal

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: THE SEAL

Giles, Dumbledore, Harry, Hermione, Ron and Draco were all seated around a large table in the middle of the Room of Requirement, each of them scanning through the numerous books that the Room had provided.  They'd since found more information on the First and the Harbingers than Buffy had been able to find in a week of research on her own.

As for the Slayer herself, she was curled up on a couch in the corner of the Room, a book in her lap, though her eyes was closed and she was in the deepest sleep that she'd had since the beginning of her nightmarish week.

Her friends kept sending her sympathetic glances, grateful that she was finally able to rest.  With the stipulation on the Room that they required the First to be unable to enter, the Room was well protected.  Harry wished he'd had that foresight the previous week when he and Buffy had slept within the Room of Requirement.  She'd seen the First then, and had been sufficiently rattled by it, and he couldn't believe how simple it was to now keep the First away.

Seeing his girlfriend sleeping peacefully for the first time in the last week was balm to his soul, and he was glad that they now had a room to retreat to where the First could not infiltrate.

"Wait, here's something," Hermione stated, capturing everyone's attention, except for the sleeping Slayer's.  "_The High Priests of the First are able to summon the spirit of their master through the ritualistic creation of a Seal.  That seal will act as the link between realms, allowing the First to access the human realms at will.  If the First is allowed access through an imbalance between light and shadow, the Seal will act as a permanent connection and allow constant access.  It is known as the Seal of Danthalzar._"

"A seal?" Ron asked curiously.  "What exactly does that mean?"

"It could mean anything," Giles replied.  "Is there any other information about it?"

Hermione skimmed across the page and shook her head.

"We require information about the Seal of Danthalzar," Dumbledore said softly.

A large tome flew from the shelves and onto the table, making the four students dodge to avoid being clipped by the book.  The pages flipped by themselves and opened to an entire chapter of information about the Seal.

"I can see why we're not allowed to use this room for homework," Ron whispered.

Harry and Draco smirked slightly, and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Indeed Mr Weasley," Dumbledore replied, his eyes twinkling slightly.  "It would completely negate the purpose of the anti-summoning spells within the library."

"What does it say about the Seal?" Giles asked, wanting to get back on track.

Dumbledore skim read over the page, his frown not giving any of the others the slightest bit of encouragement.

"It talks about the rituals needed to create the Seal.  Something about the High Priests being the only ones able to call forth the First," Dumbledore explained.

"Anything about destroying it?" Draco asked.  "I mean, if the First can be summoned by using the Seal, surely it can be beaten if we destroy it, right?"

"But the First wasn't technically summoned through the Seal," Hermione replied.  "The Seal allows it to remain here, so the Bringers must have built it after the First was in this realm.  Destroying the Seal wouldn't permanently get rid of the First, it would just limit its access."

Giles nodded his agreement, somewhat impressed by Hermione's astute point about the First's relationship to the Seal.

"We need a way to get rid of the First if it's been brought about by an imbalance then," Harry replied.

"Ah…here," Dumbledore said.  "_The First's presence within the human realm due to the disruption of the balance can only be rectified, either by the rebalancing of the scales, or through the Variable ritually destroying the Seal having undergone a series of trials.  With the destruction of the Seal, the First will be banished from the human realm, and the First may no longer contest the imbalance."_

"Variable?" Draco repeated.

"We worked this out earlier," Hermione began explaining, "the First is here because the balance between good and evil is off.  Because both Buffy and Faith are Slayers, the balance is favouring the side of good, so the First has been granted access to our realm to rectify that.  It's trying to make her a force for evil.  When it talks about the variable, it's talking about Buffy."

Draco didn't looked thrilled with that explanation, and Harry and Ron weren't any happier with it either.

"Does it say what the trials are?" Harry asked, looking across the Room to his still sleeping girlfriend.  She looked so at peace, which was a nice change from the chaos of the last week.  He didn't want to think about her having to go through trials to get the First to retreat to its own realm, but he definitely didn't want the First to remain in the human realm either.

"It's a trial of temptation," Dumbledore explained.  "It's what the First has been doing for the last week or so.  For the First to win, Buffy either has to turn from the side of good, or die."

"So, for Buffy to win, all she has to do is remain on the side of good and stay alive, right?" Ron asked.

"It's not quite that simple," Dumbledore replied.  "The Trial of Temptation, according to this book, is '_a psychological battle of wills between the First and the Variable_'.  The First will tempt Buffy with…everything it can think of, really, and Buffy must be able to make it through that period of temptation without giving into it, and without the interference of others.  If she fails the trials, the First will devour her soul."

The room fell silent, and each of them looked towards the Slayer.  She looked more vulnerable than any of them could ever remember seeing her, even during her first year at Hogwarts when the students had discovered that she was Voldemort's daughter. 

"How do the trials work?"

The group was slightly startled when they realised that it was Buffy who'd voiced the question.  Her eyes fluttered open and she stretched as much as the one-seater couch would allow. 

"Buffy…" Giles whispered softly.  "We didn't realise you were awake."

Buffy stood up slowly and made her way to the table.  Harry held his hand out, and Buffy gave it a gentle squeeze before sitting half in Harry's lap.

"Professor Dumbledore?" Buffy prodded.  "How do the trials work?"

Dumbledore hesitated, sharing a look with Giles that spoke volumes. 

"Buffy, I understand that you're tired-"

"I'm beyond tired," Buffy replied.  "I'm beyond scared.  I am standing at the edge of an apocalypse, and it wants to devour my soul.  And it'll choke on me.  If it wants a fight, then I'll give it to him.  Because I just declared war.  I am done waiting.  I'm taking the fight to the First.  There is only one thing more powerful on this earth than evil…and that's us.  Any questions?"

Harry, Hermione, Ron and Draco exchanged impressed grins.  They couldn't deny that Buffy's speech had given them a boost of energy, and something undefinable that gave them all confidence.  Even Giles and Dumbledore were suitably amazed. 

Dumbledore looked Buffy in the eyes, and saw only a steely determination that had been significantly lacking for the last few days.  Obviously seven hours of undisturbed sleep and the chance to reconcile with her friends had given Buffy the strength to suck up her courage and bring the matter to a close.  It was no wonder that the First wanted Buffy away from Hogwarts.  It was at the school that she'd been able to regain her strength, pride and courage.  She truly was a Gryffindor at heart.

"'_The Variable may call on the First to undergo the trials in order to fight for dominance within the realm'_," Dumbledore explained.  "There is a ritual to bring forth the First to begin the trials, which will last for six hours non-stop.  The trial is more a mental battle of wills.  You'll enter a trance-like state, and the First will try to manipulate your psyche.  The ritual itself requires a day of fasting, and if…_when _you successfully complete the trials, the destruction of the Seal must be within the next thirty minutes."

Buffy nodded thoughtfully.  "I guess I'd better actually eat before I begin fasting then, huh?"

------------------------

"Can we talk?" Harry asked quietly as the four Gryffindors and one Slytherin made their way to the Great Hall for dinner.

Buffy nodded, and the other three, seeing the need for privacy for their friends, continued towards the Hall without them.

Harry and Buffy wandered outside and took a seat on the cool stone steps that led up to the entrance of the castle.  Harry wrung his hands nervously, wondering where to begin.

"I…I wanted to apologise for…well, everything really," Harry said softly.  "I should have had more faith in us…in you."

Buffy sighed and took hold of one of Harry's hands.  "I do get it Harry," Buffy replied, her voice equally as soft.  "And…I'd understand if you didn't want us to be friends."

Harry looked at her completely shocked, but Buffy missed the expression entirely, so caught up in looking at their entwined hands that she completely missed his bewildered expression.

"I don't want to be friends," Harry replied.

Buffy felt as though she'd been punched, and she fought to maintain her control.  She managed to unlink their hands and quickly stood, refusing to allow herself to break down.  Whatever she'd been expecting, that hadn't been it.

Harry quickly realised what he'd just said, and how it must have sounded, and he grabbed hold of Buffy's hand, stopping her from standing up. 

"I meant…I meant, I don't want to _just_ be friends Buffy," Harry explained.  "I love you, that hasn't changed.  The only reason that I even broke up with you is because I saw my parents.  They told me that they didn't approve of us.  And…and I didn't believe in us enough to want to go against them.  That's what I'm sorry for."

Buffy was torn in her reaction.  On one hand, it was very much what she'd been longing to hear.  She could logically understand how badly Harry wanted his parents to approve of the relationship between them, and knowing how thoroughly convincing the First was in manipulation, she couldn't blame Harry for his reaction.  She couldn't, however, say that she wasn't disappointed tat Harry hadn't fought harder for them.

"Buffy, I will do anything I can to make it up to you.  The only thing that I want is for us to be together.  We've been through so much, and I love you more than I can ever say…I've been so lost without you, and its barely even been a full two days," Harry said, tears welling in his eyes.  "Just…tell me we can fix this.  I don't know what I'd do without you."

Buffy looked at him, her free hand coming up to gently touch Harry's face, outlining the scar that marred his forehead, and coming to rest her palm against his cheek.  She leant forward and brushed a gentle kiss to his lips.

Harry tried to contain his grin, but couldn't manage it completely.  He smiled widely at her and leant his forehead against hers.

"Let's not find out."

-----

Wow, that's a short chapter.  I was gonna put the reunion between B and H in the next chappie, but realised how short this one was, so I moved it completely.  Kinda glad I did tho.  Mush!!

Sorry for the lack of updates.  Been writing more fics…huzzah!  Four more chapters to go!

Toodles.

DKG.


	22. The Preparation

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: THE PREPARATION

"We basically have the next thirty hours to work out where this Seal is," Hermione said quietly as they ate dinner, surrounded by the rest of the Hogwarts students. Thankfully, everyone else was too preoccupied with discussing whatever the latest gossip within the school was.

"What happens if we don't find it?" Ron asked curiously. "I mean, if…_when_ Buffy gets through all the trials, what happens if the Seal isn't destroyed?"

The others glanced at each other. It wasn't the most optimistic thought, but it was one that had to be considered.

"I think it just becomes an impasse really," Hermione replied, though she wasn't entirely confident in her answer. "It can't devour Buffy's soul, because she passed the trials, but it still has access to this realm."

"Which would mean another set of trials," Buffy added softly. She knew that she would be spending the next twenty-four hours holed up in the Room of Requirement, meditating for whatever was to come next. "It's a long time to be out of action."

"But where would the Seal be?" Draco asked.

He was met with silence, blank stares going around the table. It didn't look too promising. Plus, there was also the fact that Buffy would need to be able to destroy the Seal within the given time frame. Thirty minutes was not a lot of time.

"We'll bring it up to Professor Giles and Dumbledore after dinner," Hermione suggested. "They might know a bit more about it."

------------------------

Giles, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco continued their research, wanting to know anything more about the Seal, and where it may have been constructed. Dumbledore was sitting aside with Buffy, trying to explain as much as he could about a ritual that very few people had ever partaken in, and even fewer had managed to come out alive from. There was nothing written about what the trials could actually be, only that it would be a mental battle, rather than a physical one.

"So, it'll show images to me?" Buffy asked. "Like what the Dementors tried to do to me last year?"

Dumbledore hesitated, pondering her question. "Something like that, but, at the same time, the exact opposite."

Buffy couldn't help but be baffled by his cryptic response.

"Splainy?"

Dumbledore chuckled slightly and ran a hand down the length of his beard.

"What the Dementors leave people with are their very worst memories, their fears, their most awful experiences," Dumbledore explained. "I believe that what the First will attempt to do is the very opposite of that. It will try and make you believe that it is capable of giving you the very best of fantasies. What you must remember is that It cannot give you anything, no matter what it tries to tell you."

"So, all I have to do is remember that the First is a complete con-artist, and I'll be okay?" Buffy asked.

"Simply put, yes. However, six hours within your inner psyche, your unconsciousness…you'll quite probably forget where you are and what you're supposed to be doing. Time has almost no meaning within the mind. The only thing that cannot change while you're inside your mind will be your outward appearance. You will appear to yourself how you appear now. Nothing will change that," Dumbledore explained.

Buffy nodded. She may not have understood how it all worked, but she understood the basics of what was being said.

"Having said all that, the ritual is for you alone to undertake. When the time comes, the Room will split in two. We will be able to observe you, but you will not see us. The First will only be allowed in your portion of the Room so that you can complete the ritual and the trials. When the trials are completed, we shall know the outcome, and then move swiftly and expediently to destroy the Seal," Dumbledore explained. "With what little information there is about the trials, I can only say this, those who overcame the temptation all mentioned being tempted three times. It's a rather significant number in the magical and mystical world, so I'll hazard a guess and say that you will be tempted with three things."

Buffy was suddenly thankful that she'd spent so many years around her Watcher, or else she may not have actually understood any of what Dumbledore had just said.

"Now…it's probably best for you to sleep for a while. The trial will begin in exactly ten hours, and I'd like you to sleep for at least eight, and meditate for the remaining two," Dumbledore said.

Buffy nodded, and watched as the Room shifted to incorporate a bed in a darkened corner. She headed over, kicking off her shoes, and curling up beneath the blankets, wishing that Harry was with her.

At the table, Harry gave his curled-up girlfriend a longing look that Hermione, Ron and Draco snickered at. Harry glared at the trio and shook his head in annoyance.

"I think it would be best if you four also were off to bed," Giles instructed. "You'll be no good to us half-asleep. Come back as soon as you are able, but be back before the ritual begins. The Room will block any entrance after the ritual begins, and unless you wish not to be in attendance, then be back in ten hours."

"We have to stay for all six hours?" Ron asked incredulously.

"We'll be taking turns to watch the ritual. We'll rotate in groups of two, taking two hour shifts. As we've seen, the Room will provide us with any and all requirements we may have, so we should be well entertained when we are not making sure that Buffy is safe," Giles explained.

Ron nodded, and the others all seemed to agree with the proposed idea. Hermione, Ron and Draco all left the Room, but Harry lingered, looking longingly at his girlfriend who had already fallen asleep.

"I'm fairly certain that if you wish to join her, Harry, all you will need to do is wish for a wall to cordon off that corner," Dumbledore whispered.

Harry's cheeks flamed bright red, but he nodded and moved across to join his sleeping girlfriend. Walls immediately appeared as soon as Harry had removed his shoes and his robes. He gently lowered himself onto the bed, his arms automatically wrapping around Buffy, who shifted in her sleep to accommodate her boyfriend. Harry sighed with contentment, thankful that his girlfriend was back in his arms. All they had to do now was make it through the next forty-six and a half hours, and they'd be home free.

They could wait until they'd slept for a proper talk, but for now, they were completely content in each other's arms.

------------------------

"I come to challenge a darkness in this realm,

I come to lay claim, and drive out the First.

I come to be challenged as a presence in this realm,

I come as a Variable, a second Champion of Light.

I come to this trial with only mind, heart and soul,

I come having quenched neither hunger, nor thirst.

I come, having fasted, through day and through night,

I come with the intention of being triumphant for Light.

I come to challenge a presence in this realm,

I come to lay claim, and drive out the First."

------------------------

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco all looked on curiously. Giles and Dumbledore were watching with a critical eye, both of them hating that there were so few details about what the trials truly entailed. It was dangerous allowing the Slayer to complete the ritual and the subsequent trials, but there was no stopping Buffy when she put her mind to something. And no matter what the outcome, it would be finished. It was a fatalistic view, but correct nonetheless.

"Now what happens?" Ron whispered.

Dumbledore chuckled softly and turned to the redhead. "You do not have to whisper Mr Weasley, she cannot hear us, and you cannot break through the wall between us. Just because you can't _see_ the wall separating our rooms, does not mean it isn't there."

Ron nodded, slightly embarrassed. Hermione gave him a small encouraging smile and he felt better for it. He took hold of Hermione's hand, squeezing it gently.

"And now…we wait," Hermione said, settling down into a comfortable chair, a book on the Seal of Danthalzar in her hand.

"And now we wait," Harry repeated, wishing there was more that he could do other than sit and watch as his girlfriend went through trials of temptation. He sighed softly and vowed to keep watch the entire time. He wouldn't leave her. Not again.

-----

So, I seriously have had far too many things to do lately, and have been unable to update for some reason or another, and it doesn't look like it is gonna slow down anytime soon. So…cos this fic is finished, you're gonna get the rest of it. Four updates in one. Enjoy!


	23. The Trials

This chapter is all kinds of strange, mostly made up of little half stories that I've wanted to write, but have never really been able to. Anything written like blah -- that, is a flashback to earlier in the morning, after having just woken up from the nap mentioned in the previous chapter. It'll become clearer later, I swear.

Also, I realised after I'd finally worked out where I wanted this story to go, and how to get there, that it was very similar to what I'd written in A Witch's Family with the Dementor and the catatonia. All those things were based on memories that had happened in either the fics or the show, but everything here is completely brand spankin' new to make it different. So, yes I know that I've done something like this before, but I hadn't realised that until after I'd reached the point of no return, and there is no way I'm putting this fic on hold for months before I think of a new idea. unrepentant grin

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: THE TRIALS

When Buffy awoke, she found herself in a room that she remembered in vivid detail. It was the room that she had grown up in for twelve years, one that held many of her best and worst memories.

"Sweetie, are you up?" a deep voice asked.

Buffy sat upright in bed, her heart pounding. Surely that couldn't have been right. There was a soft knock on the door, and it swung inwards, a familiar face peeking through.

"Buffy-baby, what's wrong?" Hank Summers asked, his voice laced with concern and love for his only daughter.

Buffy threw the covers off her body and stood up, facing a man she hadn't even thought of more than an abstract way in years.

"What…what the hell is going on?" Buffy asked.

"Language," Hank reprimanded her. "And you're going to be late. You've got ice-skating in half an hour, remember? Coach Johnson said that they'll be picking the final team for the tournament today."

It was as though that one explanation had made everything click in Buffy's mind. Of course! How could she have forgotten? Today was the tryouts for the tournament, and Coach Johnson had said that she was his top-pick of the draw. Plus, if she made it into the tournament, it would mean that she would have a very good chance of eventually being picked for the Olympic Team.

"Ugh, how could I have forgotten?" Buffy said in disgust. "Give me ten minutes!"

Hank chuckled as his daughter frantically raced through her room, grabbing her uniform and skates and throwing a change of clothes into a bag. He left the room, knowing she was capable of working herself into a frenzy unless she had a time limit.

Six and a half minutes later, Buffy was racing down the stairs barefoot; a pair of socks in one hand, her ice-skates in the other.

"C'mon, c'mon," she urged. "We're gonna be late!"

Hank laughed slightly, sharing an amused look with Joyce before grabbing his car-keys, and following after his rambunctious daughter, Joyce following behind him. Buffy tapped her bare feet nervously on the ten-minute drive, and the second they entered the parking lot to the ice-rink, she was jumping out of the car before Hank had even managed to park properly. She raced into the main entrance and threw her bag to the side, quickly pulling on her socks and her skates. She was out on the ice and doing laps before Joyce or Hank had even managed to find a seat with the other parents.

"Summers, front and centre!" Coach Johnson yelled from the middle of the ice rink.

Buffy quickly skated out to meet her coach, building up her speed and coming to a breath-stopping halt only an inch from the instructor. He glared at her as she grinned unrepentantly.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to do that?" he asked, scowling good-naturedly.

"At least once more, as always," she replied with an easy and contagious grin.

Johnson rolled his eyes and looked his favourite student over with a critical eye.

"Are you ready?" he questioned.

"I was born ready," she replied confidently.

He laughed slightly and then paused. "Summers, jewellery," he reprimanded. "I usually never have to tell you that."

"What jewellery?" Buffy asked, her hand coming to her throat and ears. She'd been sure to remove her necklace and earrings in the car.

Johnson just point wordlessly to the white-gold ring with three small diamonds on it.

"You should have this back," Harry whispered as he took off the necklace that had Buffy's ring threaded onto it. He carefully removed the white-gold band and slid the ring back onto Buffy's finger.

Buffy smiled and gently kissed Harry, thankful to have the ring back on her finger. It was a symbol of them, and she'd missed wearing it. She'd felt somewhat naked without the comfort of the band around her finger, and having it back helped her breathe easier.

"Harry," Buffy whispered. Where was Harry? Why was she back in LA with a skating coach that she hadn't seen since before moving to Sunnydale? Why wasn't she at Hogwarts in the Room of Requirement having just done some strange ritual? Wait…the First!

In an instant, she was no longer on the ice-rink. She found herself lying in a bed of red silken sheets, solid arms wrapped around her waist. She smiled in contentment and twisted around to meet her boyfriend. Her eyes went wide in confusion, until Angel's lips met her own.

"Morning," he whispered softly.

"Hey," she replied, her voice soft and shy. She blushed slightly under his intense gaze as he pulled back to stare at her. Angel just smiled the half-smile that Buffy had fallen deeply in love with, and the vampire with a soul leant forward to kiss the only girl he'd ever loved in two hundred and forty-odd years.

"You're going to be late for school," Angel whispered softly, glancing at the clock on his wall.

Buffy groaned in disappointment and burrowed her head into Angel's naked chest, pressing a soft kiss to his cool skin, still in awe of the very stillness of her cradle-robbing-creature-of-the-night-boyfriend. His heart didn't beat, and he didn't need to breath, and he was always so still that it had frightened her at first. But no, his stillness gave her comfort, and she could always find warmth in the coolness of his arms.

"Don't wanna," Buffy moaned.

"You have to Beloved," Angel whispered, kissing the side of Buffy's neck, nipping her gently, loving the slight hitch in her breathing as he did so. The change in her breathing wasn't from fear, which is what he loved so very much about Buffy. "Giles and the others are probably worried. We never checked in last night, and we have to tell them that the Judge is completely assembled."

Buffy sighed, but decided to be mature about it. She pushed the covers off her body and then froze as she remembered that she wasn't wearing anything. She turned to look at Angel, but saw only love and admiration for her body in his gaze. She grinned quickly and moved to retrieve her clothes that had been hung over a heater by Angel sometime during the night.

Angel watched, completely and utterly content, perfectly happy for the first time in his entire life. He didn't believe he deserved this, but he wasn't about to throw away the best thing in his life just because he felt guilty. As soon as he saw that his girlfriend was dressed, he moved gracefully to his own cupboard and pulled on his usual dark clothes. He shrugged into his jacket and then moved to help Buffy into hers. Their eyes met, and they shared a soft smile before Angel ducked his head down to meet Buffy's lips.

"Last night was completely perfect," Angel whispered. "I love you so much."

Buffy smiled and wrapped her arms around Angel's waist. "You didn't wake up evil did you?" she asked teasingly.

Angel's eyebrows lifted in amusement. "What makes you ask that?"

Buffy froze. What had made her ask that? She'd never had a morning after before, had she? Last night was the first and only time that she'd ever made love with somebody, so why had she felt the need to ensure that her previous patterns hadn't repeated? But that made no sense whatsoever.

"C'mon schoolgirl," he whispered softly. "Your boyfriend is dead-set on you actually getting to school today."

Buffy swallowed hard. _Dream on schoolgirl, your boyfriend is dead._ Where had she heard that before? And why did it sound so much like Angel's voice saying that inside her mind. There was a reason for this…she'd asked Angel if he'd woken up evil. She'd asked that before, she was sure of it, but not to Angel.

"You didn't wake up evil did you?" "Depends on your definition of evil." 

Buffy stepped away from Angel who looked at her in confusion. "Buffy?" he asked worriedly.

"You're not him," Buffy whispered. "You're the bad guy."

"We'll get through this Buffy," Harry whispered softly, gently kissing Buffy's shoulder. "We're gonna win."

"How do you know that?" Buffy asked, desperately wanting to believe her boyfriend, but unable to have his optimism.

"Because, we're the good guys," Harry explained. "And the First is the very definition of evil, which makes him a bad guy. He can't win. Bad guys never win."

Buffy laughed slightly and closed her eyes, leaning her head against Harry's shoulder.

"I wish I had your faith," she whispered.

"I suppose I'll just have to have enough for the both of us then."

She looked around in confusion and suddenly saw white snow surrounding her as she stood in front of a large brick house. But why was she out here, and where had Angel's apartment gone? There was something that she was supposed to be remembering…but what?

A snowball suddenly pelted her, and she instinctively dived to the ground, looking around frantically for her attacker. What she saw was a madly laughing Harry looking out from behind a tree. She grinned widely and gathered up a snowball, pitching it with complete accuracy towards her boyfriend. Harry tried to duck behind the tree, but he caught at least half of the flying snowball in the face.

"Alright, this means war!" Harry yelled, racing out from behind the protection of the tree and diving towards his girlfriend. He grabbed her by the waist, and began tickling her mercilessly.

Buffy struggled, laughing until she was having trouble breathing, but Harry was relentless.

"Say 'uncle'!" Harry yelled with a grin.

"You're – gonna – make – me – wet – my – pants!" Buffy cried out through her laughter.

Harry immediately jumped off her at the threat and watched with a loving grin as his girlfriend managed to compose herself. He reached down his hand to help pull Buffy to her feet, but she grabbed hold of his wrist and tugged him down into the snow on top of her.

"What was that for?" he asked curiously.

"No reason," she replied coyly, leaning up to press a gentle kiss to his cold lips.

Harry smiled into the kiss and reluctantly pulled away, brining one hand up to gently stroke Buffy's cheek, gazing down at her with complete love. Before he could lean down to kiss her again, they were interrupted by a familiar masculine voice calling Harry's name.

"Harry! If you can pry your lips away from your girlfriend for half a minute, we're about to have lunch!"

Harry groaned and buried his face in Buffy's neck, his warm breath tickling her sensitive skin, making her shudder slightly. Harry grumbled beneath his breath before looking up towards the house.

"Be there in a minute Dad!" Harry yelled.

Buffy giggled and gently nipped at Harry's neck.

"I suppose we have to save this for later?" Buffy said softly.

Harry nodded reluctantly. "Merlin, having parents is annoying," he commented. "Always interrupting at bad moments."

Buffy grinned and brought a hand up to touch Harry's face. She brushed the hair off his forehead, wondering if she could convince him to get a haircut so that his hair wasn't always in his eyes. She ran her thumb across the smoothness of his forehead, forever thankful that wizards knew all sorts of spells to get rid of the pain of pimples and acne. Harry's forehead was perfect, and Buffy couldn't help but lean upwards and kiss it.

She froze suddenly. This wasn't right. Something was missing. She couldn't work out what though. She was with Harry, they were celebrating the Christmas break with his parents, and they were about to go and have lunch. What could be wrong about that?

"Harry! Buffy! The food's going to get cold!" Lily called out to them.

"I don't think they'll quite believe that one Lil," James pointed out softly, though the stillness of the air carried his voice over to the two teenagers. "You're a witch for Merlin's sake, re-heating food is less hassle than floating a feather."

This was wrong. Buffy knew it within her heart that as happy as she was, this wasn't right. But, oh how tempting it was to stay in that moment, with Harry's parents bickering lovingly with each other, while she and Harry frolicked in the snow. She touched Harry's forehead again and frowned.

"Your scar…"

Harry's brow furrowed in a very familiar way and he looked at her in confusion. "Scar? What scar?"

"You're beautiful," Harry whispered.

Buffy smiled and traced her index finger over Harry's lightening-bolt shaped scar. "So are you."

Harry scoffed and pressed a soft kiss to Buffy's cheek. "You might be somewhat biased, Buffy. I know the scar makes me look weird," he said.

Buffy looked at him as though he'd suddenly gone insane. "Are you nuts? I love your scar Harry. I mean, yeah, everyone knows who you are because of it, but its so much more than that. That scar is…it's part of your history, part of who you are. Part of you, and us."

"Did I tell you that Dumbledore thinks it's actually linking us together?" Harry whispered softly. "That because Voldemort gave it to me, and because of…well, who you are, now that Voldemort's gone, I feel what you feel instead of feeling what he used to feel."

"Really?" Buffy asked curiously. "Huh, that's kinda neat."

Harry shook his head and took hold of Buffy's hand, guiding her fingers up to touch his scar again.

"I used to hate it, but…now that it links us together, I know it can't be a bad thing."

"Buffy?" Harry asked worriedly. "What scar? You're scaring me."

"From Voldemort."

"What? Voldemort? Who's that?" Harry asked, becoming increasingly worried about his girlfriend. Maybe he'd pelted her too hard with the snowball after all.

How could Harry not know who Voldemort was? And…if Voldemort hadn't existed, then why did she and Harry even know each other? She was Voldemort's daughter, she'd been brought to Hogwarts for her safety, and she'd met Harry through that. It explained why Harry's parents were standing on the stairs to the house locked in a passionate kiss though. It was tempting to believe that this was the real world, and she struggled to remember why she was so reluctant to believe that it was real.

Of course! That was why it was so tempting to stay in this beautiful world with Harry and his parents.

"The First."

And with that revelation, Harry, James, Lily and the brick house were suddenly gone.

She stood in the centre of an endless white room that had no walls, no floor, no ceiling, but somehow, she was still standing. She turned around, searching the brightness for any sort of evil presence. She wasn't going to be fooled this time. This was the work of the First, and she was going to remember it. She wasn't going to allow herself to be tempted by her normal everyday life, or by a life where Angel had never turned evil, or by a life where Voldemort had never existed, and Harry's parents were still alive. She had to admit, however, that the last temptation had been something that she desperately wanted. Not for herself, but for Harry. She could remember the gleam in his eyes, the happiness completely radiating off him as they carelessly played in the snow.

"_Welcome,_" a disembodied voice greeted her, the booming sound echoing around the endless room. "_I had wondered if you would even make it to this stage. I obviously underestimated you Slayer._"

"Most people do," Buffy replied, her eyes darting around nervously.

"_Yes, but then, I am not most people. I…am the First. The First and original evil. I am in everything, in everyone. Evil feeds from me and makes me strong. I have so enjoyed your weakness Slayer."_

Buffy bristled at the reminder of her near breakdown. She'd never felt so weak and so vulnerable in her entire life, and she had always hated feeling that way, even before she'd been Called as the Slayer.

"_We could make a formidable team,"_ the First continued, its voice soft, with almost a seductive quality to it. It made Buffy shiver in loathing and disgust, goosebumps pebbling up and down her arms. "_Think about the power you could have._"

"I already have power," Buffy replied. "There's nothing that you could give me that would convince me to join you."

"_Really?_" the First asked, and Buffy felt that familiar prickle of fear race up and down her spine. "_I know your thoughts Slayer. I know you wanted that last vision to be real. I could make it that way_."

Buffy shook her head, unwilling to listen, but the First continued talking before Buffy could even get her thoughts together.

"_You could give Harry everything he's ever wanted. A real family, with a real home. You saw how happy he was with his parents. You saw the complete joy in his eyes, you cannot deny it. I can make it happen. You could have it all._"

"For a price," Buffy stated.

"_A small price to pay for your true love's happiness, is it not?"_

Buffy swallowed hard. What she wanted more than anything was for Harry to be safe and happy. This was her chance to give it to him, and…it was a small price to pay, wasn't it? What wouldn't she be willing to give up for Harry? There was nothing in the world that she would deny him…

"_Just think about it Slayer…Harry would have the perfect family…he'd even have a younger sister just like he's always wanted. His parents would adore you, you'd have their blessings to be together for the rest of your lives. This is a large gift that I'm offering you in return for one small, insignificant thing, don't you think?"_

Buffy hesitated, trying to get everything to make sense to her. She didn't know how it would be possible, it seemed to good to be true, but it was a convincing argument.

"_Do you love him Buffy?_" it asked softly, the voice whispering inside her mind rather than echoing through the endless room. "_What would you give up for him? Would you kill for him? Would you die for him? I don't want either of those things Buffy. What I want from you is simple…would you give up your soul to secure Harry's happiness?"_

The answer 'yes' was on the tip of her tongue, and Buffy only barely managed to keep herself from screaming her answer.

"Prove it," Buffy challenged, her Slayer's mind managing to come to the foreground momentarily. "Prove that you can give Harry that life."

"_Not until I have your word."_

"Then you're a liar," Buffy said frostily. "You don't have the power to make it happen. You can't give him that life. And you won't get my soul, no matter what bargaining chip you use."

"_How dare you question my power?!" _the First screamed, the voice booming through the endless room, making Buffy's ears ring with the volume of it.

"I dare because you've got bugger-all to show for yourself," Buffy replied angrily. "Ooo, a white room and a loud voice…scary. Not! These are just parlour tricks. And that's all your capable of, isn't it? You could appear as ghosts, but never as anything more. You couldn't affect anything, except by playing mind games on people using scare tactics. You have no power over me anymore. There's nothing you can do to me, and there's nothing you can offer me. I will never join you. I will never give in to you. And I will never fight on the side of darkness. I am a Champion of Light, and I challenge your presence in the human realm. I lay claim to my world, and by my words, I am driving you out."

"_You cannot drive me out, little girl!_" the First cried in anger. "_You cannot win! I am the First. I am what the darkness fears. I am the evil that lives in everything and everyone. I will not be beaten. You cannot defeat me, for I am the darkness."_

"Okay, I get it, you're evil. Do we have to chat about it all day?"

And with that, Buffy's trance was broken, her eyes popping open, a gasp tearing from her mouth.

On the other side of the wall in the Room of Requirement, four students and two Professors breathed sighs of relief, and the barrier between them disappeared.

-----

That chapter was all kinds of fun to write. Forgive me for the B/A mush, but I've been in a weird B/A mood for the last few days. Been reading sappy fics that made me cry earlier, so it's been interesting. Hoping you were able to follow that chappie alright, and hoping you enjoyed. Two more chaps to go until the end of this epic.

Toodles.

DKG.


	24. The Variable

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: THE VARIABLE

Harry was at his girlfriend's side in the blink of an eye, helping Buffy to stand. Before either of them could say a word, they'd simultaneously flung themselves at the other, their lips locking with enough passion to make everyone else in the room look away and blush.

"You did it," Harry whispered as he eventually pulled back.

"Was there ever any doubt?" Buffy asked teasingly.

Harry shook his head and kissed her once more, only pulling back when he heard his friends beginning to cough tactlessly behind them. Buffy and Harry pulled apart and grinned sheepishly at their friends.

"So…any luck with the Seal of Mufasa?" Buffy asked.

"Danthalzar," Giles corrected her, though the grin on Buffy's face told him that Buffy had just been trying to get a reaction from him. He rolled his eyes and removed his glasses, polishing them on his handkerchief. "We managed to narrow it down to two places actually. The Chamber of Secrets, or somewhere in the Forbidden Forest. But, the others were kind enough to remind me that you patrolled the Forest too frequently to miss a Seal the size of Danthalzar."

"So…the Chamber huh?" Buffy repeated. "I guess that means we're about to take a trip to the little girls room then."

Harry, Hermione, Ron and Draco all laughed slightly, thankful for the return of Buffy's humour, something they had sorely missed since the beginning of the escapades with the ghosts.

"We've also discovered that we're in need of Faith as well," Dumbledore added. "It seems that the ritual to destroy the seal requires both the Variable and Variant."

Buffy nodded and looked to the others. "I'll meet you guys at the entrance to the Chamber then," she said.

"Why not just meet inside?" Draco asked.

"Because if it is the home of the Seal, then the Harbingers are gonna be all kinds of pissed off that we're halfway to destroying the First. And I'd feel better knowing that we go as a group with the help of two Slayers as well as some seriously wicked witches and wizards," Buffy explained.

Giles and Dumbledore nodded at the plan, and the others followed the example of the Professors. With a small crack, Buffy disapparated out of the Room of Requirement and into the Wesley's apartment, startling both the primary Slayer and the Watcher.

"B!" Faith exclaimed. "Where the hell've you been girl, I've been worried sick."

Buffy looked to her fellow Slayer, and then glanced at Wesley. "I'll explain everything later, I swear. Right now, I just need you to come with me Faith."

Faith hesitated, but nodded her consent, quickly grabbing some weapons, and tucking the stake that Wesley threw her way into the back of her jeans. Buffy held her hand out for Faith to take, which the brunette Slayer willing did. Wesley could only stay behind and pray to the Higher Powers that whatever was the matter, it would be sorted without injuries to either of the Slayer's.

Buffy and Faith appeared with a crack at the sinks in the girls bathroom on the second floor. The other six were waiting as Buffy had suggested, and the Slayer was grateful for that.

"What the fuck's goin' on?" Faith asked.

"Remember how I was seriously nuts a few days ago?" Buffy asked, waiting until Faith nodded before continuing. "Well, I was being haunted by this thing called the First Evil. Basically, it didn't like that there were two Slayers fighting for good, so it tried to balance it out a little by making me nuts and eventually making me evil. We figured out what was happening, I did a trial thingy, managed to pass it, and now we just have to destroy a Seal that we think is down in the Chamber below us. To destroy the Seal, it needs both Slayers, so…I'm kinda hoping you'll agree to this, because we've got…oh, about twenty-two minutes to destroy it."

Faith's eyes widened. She was definitely wanting to hear the longer version of all of that, but she knew that it could wait. "Let's do this thing," Faith replied confidently.

Buffy looked to Harry. "Do you want to do the honours or should I?" she asked.

Harry shook his head. "I've already opened it once. I've learnt to share."

Buffy grinned and winked, loving the way that Harry blushed a little. She turned from him and stepped towards the broken tap with the small snake emblem on the faucet. Her eyes unfocussed and the light played on the snake, making it appear to move. She whispered something in parseltongue, and the group watched as the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets revealed itself, the gaping black hole in the floor not allowing anyone to know how long the drop was before you would hit the ground.

Buffy looked to Faith and grabbed her sister Slayer's hand, and the two of them stepped up to the edge of the entrance. "Bombs away."

The two Slayers jumped, the others waiting for ten seconds before jumping down one after the other in ten-second intervals. When they reached the bottom, they followed the tunnel, Harry grimacing at the basilisk skin lying on the ground. They reached another door, and Buffy again spoke in parseltongue to open it. She looked at her watch and frowned. Fourteen minutes. If they were wrong about the location of the Seal, they would be screwed.

The Slayers led the group, followed by the four Hogwarts students, and the two Professors bringing up the rear. Each of the Hogwarts students had their wands out, ready for any action. Buffy and Faith had their weapons ready, Buffy with her wand in hand as well as a short sword.

They could hear movement inside the Chamber, and they remained perfectly still as they could hear the echo of footsteps and the frantic chanting of the Bringers.

"I think we're in the right place," Ron whispered nervously.

Hermione squeezed Ron's hand slightly, feeling as nervous as Ron looked. She was just glad that they had two of the best Professors with them, as well as two Slayers.

Buffy crept silently to the ledge overhanging the Chamber and looked down, trying to see how many Bringers were down there.

"How many are there?" Giles asked.

"At least forty," Buffy replied. "Good news though, I saw the Seal."

The others swallowed nervously, and glanced at each other in trepidation.

"What's the plan?" Draco asked.

"Faith and I go in first," Buffy whispered. "We ruin their ritual to give us some more First-free time. On our signal you'll come in, magic blazing."

"What's the signal?" Hermione asked.

"Us screaming," Faith deadpanned.

Hermione paled, and the others looked increasingly nervous.

"If you can, go for their eyes, neck or heart. That's their weakest spots. Stun them, immobilise them, leg-lock them for all I care. Remember that these are demons that will kill you the second they have the chance," Giles explained. "Do not show mercy, for you will be shown none."

"Count of three," Buffy whispered.

Faith nodded, and the two Slayers counted in unison before springing into the Chamber and racing towards the Seal where a dozen of the Bringers were chanting.

"Sorry boys. Five more minutes of chanting, and then you guys have to go to bed," Buffy quipped.

The dozen Bringers around the Seal didn't even flinch at the intrusion. The other thirty-odd Bringers around them, however, took exception to being interrupted, and began their attack. The two Slayers fought back to back, guarding each other against the hoard of eye-less demons. Eight minutes.

"You ever wonder how these suckers can see where they're going?" Faith yelled over the din of the fight.

"Can't say that I've lost sleep over it," Buffy replied. "You?"

"I don't lose sleep over anything," Faith replied. "Now, d'you wanna destroy that ritual thing, or should I?"

"You seem like you could use some mindless destruction," Buffy replied. "Have at it."

They suddenly switched so that Faith was closer to the ritual. They slowly edged their way towards the ritual, killing as many Bringers as they could. There was a pile up of bodies, making it harder for the other bringers to get close enough to attack the Slayers. Faith finally had enough of being cautious, and she sprang over the top of several of the Bringers, ducking into a roll and landing in the centre of the Seal. She kicked over the candles, smiling in satisfaction as one of the robes the Bringers were wearing caught fire.

"I'd say now would be a good time to get the others in here," Faith suggested.

"I was just thinking that," Buffy replied as she was thrown to the ground, scraping most of the skin from her elbow. In unison, the two Slayers screamed for the others, thankful when they saw them appear in the middle of the battle.

"Three minutes B!" Faith yelled to her sister-Slayer. "How do we destroy the Seal?"

Buffy kicked her opponent off her and rammed her sword into the Bringers gut, the demon falling lifelessly to the ground.

With the others continuing to fight the Bringers using their magic to freeze the demons, and then killing them, the Slayers were confident to leave the fight to their friends. They fought their way to the Seal and stood on opposites side of it.

"Sixty seconds," Faith muttered, boning on her feet, not keen to see what would happen if they missed the window of opportunity.

Buffy removed a dagger from the sheath in her boot and cut a diagonal line in her palm.

"We come to challenge a darkness in this realm,

We come to lay claim, and drive out the First."

Buffy held her palm over the Seal, letting her blood drip onto it. She handed the knife to Faith.

"We come as Variable and Variant,

We come having resisted temptation,

We come having survived even death."

Faith dragged the blade of the knife across her own palm and let the blood drip onto the Seal, not entirely clear what was supposed to happen, but trusting that her sister-Slayer had a vague idea of what was going on. She checked her watch, her eyes bugging out as she realised that there was under half a minute left.

"We come to challenge a darkness in this realm,

We come to lay claim, and drive out the First."

The ground rumbled beneath them, and the fight was suddenly brought to an abrupt halt. The Slayers and the group from Hogwarts all steadied themselves, using each other or the wall to keep steady as the ground continued to tremble.

"What's happening?!" Ron yelled.

No one had an answer for him.

The Seal suddenly opened a bright light shinning upwards, each of them covering their eyes with their hands, turning away from the brightness of it. The rumbling continued, the ground trembling more fiercely than before.

The white light seemed to suddenly explode, reaching even the darkest, dankest corners of the Chamber, a loud echoing boom roaring through the Chamber. And, as quickly as it had begun, it was over. The light vanished, and with it, the Seal collapsed in on itself, leaving only dirt and ash where the metal Seal had lain. The dead Bringers that had laid in clumps all over the floor had vanished, and there were no live Bringers either. The group cautiously moved to stand in a circle around where the Seal had lain.

"Does this mean we won?" Ron asked.

Buffy laughed suddenly, a grin settling onto her face. She looked around at each member of the group, her eyes meeting their for a few scant moments, silently telling each of them how much it meant that they had been there for what may have been an apocalyptic battle.

"Yeah Ron. We won."

----

One more.


	25. The End

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: THE END

"This feels so strange," Harry commented, grinning wryly at his friends.

"What feels strange?" Ron asked, completely confused.

Harry just grinned even more as he looked around the table, the Gryffindors celebrating their win against the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team. The entire table of Gryffindors were grinning madly, talking loudly, and making Snape scowl dangerously from the Professors table at the front of the Great Hall.

"This," Harry replied, gesturing to their group. "Us, just sitting here."

Ron looked at his best friend, trying to work out if Harry had gone mad in the last few hours, and how he had missed it.

"It feels pretty normal to me mate," Ron replied.

Hermione rolled her eyes, and shared a glance with Buffy that said only one thing: 'boys!'. Buffy grinned and nodded her sympathy.

"I think what Harry's trying to say is that it feels strange to feel so…well, normal," Hermione explained.

Harry nodded, grinning at Hermione in thanks, and putting an arm around Buffy's waist, drawing her closer to him.

"It's been two weeks and _nothing_ even remotely exciting has happened," Harry explained.

"You're just too used to leading an exciting life," Buffy replied sagely. "I mean, you had to deal with Voldemort for five years before we kicked his ass to hell, and then we had to deal with the Slytherins in all their evilness."

Draco just rolled his eyes and gave his cousin a small shove good-naturedly. Ginny reached across and thwacked Draco's shoulder, eliciting a yelp from the platinum blonde boy, and a prompt kiss from Ginny to make up for hurting him. This of course was followed by a glare from Ron, who was then hit by Hermione, making Ron yelp, and forcing Hermione to kiss her boyfriend.

"And now that we managed to survive the First, I'd say we're in for at least five months of beautiful nothingness," Buffy finished.

"Why only five months?" Ginny inquired curiously.

"Because in five months we'll be back for a new year at Hogwarts," Hermione answered. "And between the lot of us, we'll most likely end up in bucket loads of trouble."

"Our final year at Hogwarts," Ron commented thoughtfully. "It doesn't feel like it's already been six years."

"Feels more like two to me," Buffy grinned.

"Five for me," Ginny added.

"Ha bloody ha," Ron replied, glaring at his younger sister and his best friend's girlfriend.

"Well, we still have to make it through exams first," Hermione said.

The rest of the group groaned, drawing the immediate attention of Neville, Seamus and Dean who'd been having a play-by-play discussion of the recently ended Quidditch match.

"We're groaning, why?" Dean asked.

"Exams," Harry, Ron, Buffy, Draco and Ginny all replied, they're voices tinged with the excitement they felt. None.

The three new-comers to the conversation all rolled their eyes.

"At least we don't have to go through the OWL's again," Neville commented. "Those were awful."

"Thanks Neville," Ginny spoke up, glaring daggers at the shyest Gryffindor boy. "Real supportive."

Neville tried sputtering out an apology, much to the amusement of the rest of the group. Ginny finally cracked, and broke into a smile, Neville sighing with relief as he realised he wasn't in too much trouble after all.

"So, tomorrow's a Hogsmeade weekend," Seamus spoke up, grinning with enthusiasm. "Are you lot all coupling up, or are we all going to get butterbeers at the Three Broomsticks?"

"Butterbeers," they all replied, excluding Buffy and Harry.

"Whilst coupling," Ginny added. She grinned off their looks and shrugged innocently. "What, I can't multi-task?"

"What about you two?" Neville asked, noticing that Buffy and Harry hadn't answered.

"We're visiting my mother," Buffy replied, somewhat nervously. "I'm gonna do the whole 'guess what, I'm a Slayer' thing. Harry's gonna provide moral support."

Draco, Hermione and Ron all grimaced at the thought of Buffy telling her mother the truth about her semi-new role as the Slayer. They'd all been informed about the fallout from Buffy telling Joyce Summers about who she was and what she did, and they didn't want to imagine what would happen if Sara Lanston had a similar reaction.

"You'll be fine," Draco said reassuringly. "Aunt Sara already knows about all things magical, so at least she'll be somewhat prepared for it. Just don't start the conversation with 'anybody slain some vampires lately?'"

Buffy rolled her eyes as the others snickered slightly.

"Dominique's gonna be there for the Watcher-y side of things as well," Buffy added, trying to ignore her cousin. "Just so she doesn't think I'm a nut-job or anything. And Giles said he'd come with as well."

"Ah, Buff, I don't think Professor Giles going with you to Aunt Sara's is necessarily about moral support," Draco said hesitantly.

Buffy looked at him blankly, and Draco smirked slightly, loving the adorable cluelessness of his cousin.

"Professor Giles…how can I put this delicately…well, he fancies your mum," Draco said.

Buffy's jaw dropped. "What?!" she screeched. Anybody within a ten-foot radius all turned to see what had caused the sudden outburst, and Buffy coloured slightly, ducking her head and burrowing into Harry's shoulder. Harry just grinned and dropped a gentle kiss on top of Buffy's head.

"Sorry to break it to you Buff, but our DADA Professor is completely in love with your mum," Draco spelt out.

Buffy looked completely shocked, and the others within the group were craning their necks to get a better look at their Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, as though looking at him while he was eating dinner would explain any and all mysteries regarding him.

Giles noticed the scrutiny, but was completely unaware of the context. Regardless, his cheeks flamed slightly, uncomfortable with the sudden attention from Buffy's friends. He looked to see his young charge with her own red cheeks, looking as though she was trying to melt into the fabric of Harry's robes. Giles just shook his head, but was thankful when everyone's attention was brought back to the Gryffindor table and away from himself.

"No way," Buffy whispered softly. "Where was I when this was happening?"

"Ahhh, getting to know your mum I think," Draco replied. "It wasn't all that obvious, it's just…well, I'm a bloke, and I can see these things about other blokes."

"Well, what about my mom?" Buffy asked curiously. "Is she into him?"

Draco shrugged. "Like I said, I can only tell with other males. Buggered if I can ever tell what a female is thinking."

"That's just…wow, that's really weird," Buffy said quietly.

"It's good though isn't it?" Harry asked. "I mean, your mum and Giles? She's your mother, and you always say that Giles is like your real dad. This doesn't have to be a bad thing."

Buffy paused momentarily, considering Harry's words. She finally nodded and gave Harry a soft smile.

"This is why I keep you around," she teased gently. "To make sure my head's on straight."

"My pleasure," Harry replied, leaning in to kiss her softly.

The group rolled their eyes in complete unison as Harry and Buffy drifted into their own little world, kissing each other softly, oblivious to their audience, or the impatience of their spectators.

"How many times do I have to tell you guys," Seamus complained loudly, "get a room for Merlin's sake!"

Buffy and Harry broke apart grinning.

"I think we can control ourselves this time Shay," Buffy replied.

"So, Harry mate, when's the wedding gonna be?" Dean teased, expecting the couple to begin to blush and stammer out an explanation.

It was to the groups complete and utter surprise when both the Slayer and the Boy-Who-Lived turned to them with serious expressions and replied in synchronous: "The day after we graduate."

--------------

The End. Final ending. No more sequels. Three is definitely enough.


	26. Thanks You's and Stuff

THANK YOU'S AND STUFF

Yeesh. I am all tapped out of ideas for this fic, which you may or may not be grateful for. It's been a long and sometimes frustrating ride, and though I'm sad to see it end, I'm also glad that it's finally finished. You guys have been absolutely awesome with all your feedback, emails and encouragement. Without all of you, I would have given up on this fic. I vaguely recall starting A Murderer's Daughter a loooong time ago. January '03 actually. What started as a random idea that I was never actually going to post became the massive epic that you've witnessed over the last twenty months. It spawned a fair whack of my other crossover fics, cos once I started, I just couldn't seem to stop.

The entire series clocks in at about 213,400 words.

I have to give my thanks to everyone who has encouraged me to continue when I was going to pathetically give up on it, especially when it got a pretty dodgy reception when I first began posting…was sooo close to not finishing it, and just giving up, but a few bad reviews wouldn't hold me back grins. I need to thank everyone who made suggestions for this fic, because it was a floundering mess at some stages, and a lot of you guys gave me nudges in the right direction. I wanna thank the people who critiqued with no mercy (coughJohncough) because you definitely made me wanna write better. Whether I fixed what you critiqued is a different story all together, but…I did take it on board, honest!

I do have other fics in the making, and I'm still working on Seduction by Darkness. I think I may have to give up on the idea of a sequel for House of Black, because I'm seriously all tapped out I think. But, with any luck, you will still see some of my stuff being posted…not sure what yet, but I'm addicted to feedback, so you're not getting rid of me just yet.

So, once again, thank you all of you for taking time out to read this thing. To everyone who has nominated me for awards and stuff, you guys all rock! It's been a long journey, and I thank you all for taking it with me.

Toodles.

DKG.


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